Coming up!
Zach-of-all-trades meets Gene the Wolffish in Eastport, Maine!
Watch your fingers!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
It’s a beautiful day in Eastport, Maine.
This small, scenic city on the New England coast is located on Passamaquoddy Bay, as
far north as you can go on the coast of Maine, before you hit Canada.
Eastport is my favorite place to be in the summer, with perfect downeast weather!
Passamaquoddy Bay is an inlet off the Bay of Fundy—world-renown for its extreme tides.
With a tidal range of more than 20 feet, water really moves in and out of the bay, at speeds
exceeding ten knots, creating turbulence visible from the air.
We have done segments here before, but I wanted to introduce Zach-of-all-trades to Gene the
world-famous wolffish!
Are you excited?
I’m so excited!
Do you think you’re going to be able to stay warm in this arctic water?
Are you kidding me?
I have my Snydersuit!
I can do anything!
Let’s go
Also, I have this cool new macro lens to try out, which allows me to film really small
creatures.
So I’m excited to try filming some of the miniature marine life in the bay.
The Blue World team and I are diving from our back yard….the Blue World dive shack.
Because of the strong tides, we can only dive during a short period of time when the tide
changes, and the water is slack.
Slack lasts about an hour, so our timing has to be perfect.
It’s agony to put on a drysuit on a hot summer day.
Then you get all sweaty walking to the water.
But once you get into the water, it feels great.
Sinking down, we are disappointed to discover bad visibility.
Like….really bad.
The water is never particularly clear here, but this is something else altogether.
Even though I have completed more than 200 dives on this site, I’m having a hard time
finding my way around.
Hey everybody!
Have you subscribed?
You know we only put out about one episode a month so you’re not going to get a lot
of notifications from us.
Just hit the button!
Passamaquoddy Bay is full of colorful stuff, like anemones, sea stars, and sponges, and
they’re pretty small.
Fortunately, we don’t need great visibility to film small stuff.
I have my super close-up lens with me, so I start looking for small stuff.
A purple Smooth sun star, with ten arms, can grow to more than a foot across, but this
one is only a few inches.
I look to my left and notice that I’m being watched by a small fish known as a Grubby.
It’s a type of skulpin--a bottom-dwelling fish that relies upon its camouflage for protection.
I’m pretty sure it thinks I can’t see it, and doesn’t swim away.
Only an inch long, a nudibranch is sort of like a snail with no shell.
The colorful bristles, called cerrata, on its back are a combination of gills and defensive
organs.
Each cerratum has a stinging cell in the tip for defense.
But its body cannot manufacture these stinging cells.
Instead, the nudibranch eats various species of hydroids—basically tiny non-swimming
jellyfish—and recycles the hydroid’s stinging cells.
Nudibranchs are simultaneous hermaphrodites—meaning they’re both male and female--so when any
two meet up, they can mate and produce a tiny ribbon of eggs for the next generation.
Some nudibranchs mimic the their habitat for protection.
The Bushy-backed nudibranch lives in algae or kelp, and can be quite hard to spot.
Just below the low tide line, I come across a Green crab.
Although this crab is quite common throughout New England waters, it’s actually a foreign
invader.
Originating in the waters of the northeast Atlantic around Europe, this sneaky little
crab has spread around the world, mostly because its planktonic larvae get a free ride in the
ballast water of ships.
They like to eat baby clams, mussels and scallops, which means they are not particularly welcome
in Maine, where scallops are big business.
Fortunately, lots of animals like to eat Green crabs.
Meet Jane the Wolffish.
She is particularly fond of Green crabs and does her part to keep the population under
control.
Jane and Bob are two of our local wolffish.
They live together in a big den under a rock.
We named them after our neighbors, because they are such a cute couple.
We’re not sure what Bob likes to eat, but Jane keeps an eye peeled for crabs.
A crab shell is no match for these teeth.
Any crab that wanders into this neighborhood is in big trouble.
Jane would probably eat a decorator crab too, but she never sees any.
The decorator crab has camouflage made from marine growth, and moves slowly.
If this crab doesn’t move, it’s almost invisible, even to Jane the Wolffish.
The Rock crab is the most common crab in this most crabby place.
With face only a mother could love.
And it’s mating season.
The male carries the female around for days until she molts, because they can only mate
when her new shell is soft.
Her soft shell will make her vulnerable to predators, but the male will protect her.
And when the mating is done, the crabs are hungry.
It’s a crab-eat-crab world, and Rock crabs will happily devour any Green crab they can
catch.
This crab has nothing to fear though.
Hermit crabs live in recycled snail shells, making them very tough.
It’s like living in a portable bunker.
They feed with busy mouthparts on tiny invertebrates and detritus.
At the other end of the scale, this crustacean has little to fear.
The American lobster is the king of the local crustaceans.
This one is eating a mussel that it cracked open with a powerful crusher claw.
It’s time to introduce Zach-of-all-trades to Gene the famous wolfish, so we make our
way over to his den.
Gene has lived here for more than 20 years and he is so big that he barely fits through
his front door to the huge den within.
Christine shows Zach has it’s done, coaxing Gene out of his den with a delicious snack.
The entrance to the den is so small, sometimes Gene has a hard time squeezing back through.
Next it’s Zach’s turn.
He’s a little apprehensive about getting his fingers chomped, but Gene is actually
quite gentle with us.
He’s a good fishie.
After an hour, the tide has started to turn and the current is starting to run, so we
make our way up to shallower water for a short safety stop.
In the shallows we are greeted by a Lion’s Mane jelly, one of the more potent jellyfish
in the world, so we are careful to steer clear of the stinging tentacles.
But even the mighty Lion’s mane can be prey.
If the current pushes a lions mane down too close to the bottom, it can get snagged and
become the victim of an army of sea urchins, slowly advancing, and oblivious to its tentacles!
The cold waters of Passamaquoddy Bay are a far cry from diving in the clear waters of
a tropical coral reef, but the marine life hidden in the cold, green water here is every
bit as fascinating and engaging as marine life anywhere in the world.
And by diving here so often, I have been able to get to know some of the residents quite
well.
Every time I step into the water in Eastport, I feel like I’m visiting old friends—a
reunion in the Blue World.
Hey Everyone!
Have you subscribed to our extras Channel BlueWorld_plus?
It’s full of great behind-the-scenes and additional fun content!
Check it out now!