﻿Coming up, Jonathan and Zach head down to Florida with a bunch of pirates looking for
Bull sharks, but they have to go way offshore! Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
I love sharks, and I have been lucky enough to dive with sharks
all over the world. I’ve filmed Great White sharks in Mexico, Blue sharks in New England,
Sand Tiger sharks on the wrecks of North Carolina, and Tiger sharks in the Bahamas.
I even learned how to handle Tiger sharks up close.
I’ve filmed sharks during the day, and at night.
I have filmed them on the reef, and in the open ocean. I’ve even filmed them in caves!
It may seem like there’s nothing I haven’t done when it comes to sharks, but the ocean is a big
place and new adventures always await. You know I love shark diving, but I’ve never done it here in
Florida. Unfortunately they have a law that you can’t feed sharks here in Florida within
three miles of shore. So they’ve developed and interesting way of doing shark dives way out
at sea. Today, Zach-of-all-trades and I have come to beautiful West Palm Beach Florida.
We be diving with Pirates Paradise! I like the sound of that!
Ahem…I mean…We’re diving with Pirates Paradise. I like the sound of that. I meet with Captain
Rob to get an idea what to expect. Arrrrg! The dread Captain Robert The Beard!
Then Zach and I fill out some paperwork and meet our divemaster Mike Brady. That’s a really
lame pirate name! Then we load our gear onto the boat for an adventure. Can’t forget the camera.
We have plenty of time to assemble our gear while we travel to the dive site.
Because we have to go 3 miles offshore to legally feed sharks in Florida,
that means it will take half an hour to reach our destination.
I’m starting a cool new look for divers. Sunglasses underwater.
Mike says we can expect some Bull sharks, a species not commonly seen on shark dives.
I hope they show up! This far offshore, the bottom is more than a hundred feet down, which
is too deep for anything but a short visit. So the trick is to bring the sharks up shallower to us.
Mike takes the bait in a milk crate way down to the bottom to get the sharks’ attention.
Once they’re interested, he swims the bait back up to us, waiting at about 50 feet. Arrrrg!
That be 15 meters for ye metric people! The first sharks to join us are the Lemon sharks.
Lemon sharks tend to be homebodies. They find a section of reef to call home and generally don’t
stray too far from that area. They will come up above the reef because of the chum.
When you interact with sharks on the bottom, they can come up from behind or above, but they can’t
sneak in from below. Here in open water, you have to keep your eyes constantly moving to keep track
of sharks in all directions. Lemon sharks have very pointy teeth that look aggressive.
The reality is that these teeth are designed for a purpose. Lemon sharks feed mostly on fish.
These needle-like teeth help the shark grab and hold small slippery fish, to be swallowed whole.
What this means to us as divers is that these sharks would never consider us food.
They would not attack anything as large as a person—they’re simply not designed to eat
food that big. Their teeth just don’t cut well, so they can’t take bites out of larger prey.
These sharks are just looking for a snack—something small they can eat in one bite.
Zach of all trades is on his first shark dive. And he looks pretty comfortable to me!
I have to admit, I was a little nervous to be diving with sharks for the first time.
But once I got down there and I was surrounded by sharks,
I realized just how calm and majestic these animals are, and I was no longer afraid.
Lemon sharks are considered a social species. They often hang out in small groups, enjoying
the company of other Lemon sharks. So when we chum for Lemon sharks, more often than not, we get a
whole bunch of them, not just one—which of course makes for great fun. The Lemon sharks are cool,
but we are really hoping to see Bull sharks, and so far…they haven’t shown up.
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Here off the east coast of Florida, we are diving in the Gulf Stream, a strong northward current.
We don’t feel the current at all floating in mid-water because we are drifting with it.
But as time goes by, we drift northward, with the reef going by down below us.
Soon we have drifted far enough from the Lemon shark’s reef that they begin to leave
us to swim south against the current back home. And their departure is accelerated by the arrival
of another species. Bull sharks at last! Bull sharks look a lot like plain old reef sharks.
It takes a careful look to tell them apart. Bull sharks have a chunkier appearance and
a shorter snout. For their length, they are heavier than similar shark species.
Bull sharks are known for an aggressive disposition,
especially in the murky shallows where they normally hunt.
However, here in open water the sharks have learned that divers bring snacks.
They’re definitely are not on the menu. It turns out that Bull sharks are actually quite curious.
They spend plenty of time swimming around between us, checking us out.
And they seem to like my lights, so I get lots of great shots when they come in for a look.
The action is so exciting that people tend to breathe rapidly and go through their air supply
fairly quickly, so before we know it, it’s time to start making our way back to the surface.
As long as we still have some chum, the sharks follow. After our safety stop, Captain Rob brings
the boat over to pick us up. Woo, man that was some sharktacular action baby! Woo! I’ve been on
literally hundreds of shark dives all over the world, and not once have I ever been hurt by a
shark. Sharks are clearly curious, and probably a lot smarter than most people would expect.
Apex predators like sharks play an important role in ocean ecosystems,
and their protection helps preserve the health of the oceans. It is my hope that our adventures
filming these majestic animals in the wild will help people understand that sharks are not
monsters on the prowl, but beautiful and crucial guardians of the Blue World.
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