- Well, this story just took a different turn.
We've got eyes on two different lobsters,
the problem is the giant swarm of moon jellies.
Ow!
My face went straight into a jelly fish.
Oh, my gosh, my face is on fire right now.
- [Trent] You got it, Christina.
(Christina laughing)
- It is capable of biting.
They have these serrated mouth parts,
that almost look like the shears of a scissor
and imagine that as my pointer finger,
you get that into the mouth
and all of a sudden the top of your finger is coming off.
(rock thudding)
(rock crumbling)
All right, today's gonna be a true adventure.
We are going fishing for spiny lobsters,
an animal I've never caught before
and it involves a rather unique challenge
of snorkeling down to rock ledges
to tickle them out of the rocks.
Now, Christina, you have caught spiny lobsters
before, correct? - Yeah, I have,
but it took me a good few tries, I'm not gonna lie.
- So for the lobsters to get caught today,
they're probably going, "Oh no, I'm gonna end up
in hot water and butter!"
But in truth, they're gonna be released back into the wild.
We're spiny lobster lovers, what can I say?
So what is your role today in this lobster expedition?
- My role today on this lobster expedition
is the underwater cinematographer.
(air horn blasting)
I'm gonna put on my wetsuit, I'm gonna put on my snorkel,
I'm gonna get in the water,
I'm gonna get you guys getting the spiny tail lobsters.
- [Coyote] Okay, so who do you think's gonna win
in this challenge, me or Christina?
- Absolutely Christina.
- She is a native here, I think she's got the upper hand,
I think she might even be a better swimmer than you.
- I think the money's on me.
- [Coyote] So Trent's wearing
his pineapple swim trunks today
and who lives under the sea, Trent?
- SpongeBob SquarePants.
♪ La-la-la-la-la-la ♪
♪ La-la-la-la-la ♪
- [Coyote] You've got the voice there.
Mario, is there any special voice you can do?
- I'm jumping in the water, man.
(all laughing)
(drone whirring)
- [Christina] Fly, pelican, fly, don't hit the seagull.
- [Coyote] All right, opening drone shots,
important piece of any production.
We're gonna get down to work, fun time's over.
Time to catch some lobsters.
- About to have the ride of your life, whoo!
(dynamic melodic music)
- If ever there's a time to break out your lobster trunks,
this would be it.
- We're out here in the Florida Keys, man,
we're gonna get some spiny lobsters.
We're all about peace, we're not gonna eat them,
we're just gonna showcase their beauty
out here in the Florida Keys and all.
Sometimes my hair gets in my eyes,
but that's okay because I'm at peace with myself, you know?
- Whoa, whoa, Mario, what are you doing?
- Oh, shoot! (Christina laughing)
- Catching lobsters probably sounds
a lot easier than it really is.
Getting yourself into the water is the first trick
and to do that, all you really need
are a couple of dive fins, a mask and a snorkel.
When it comes to actually capturing the bugs themselves,
this is a tickle stick right here,
where you work it into the rocks, tickle the lobster out
and you scoop it up in the net.
Most importantly are going to be your lobster gloves,
these Kevlar babies right here will protect you
against those backward-turned spines.
So hopefully today we'll manage to catch some spiny lobsters
without getting ourselves barbed.
(water splashing)
Well, this story just took a different turn,
we've got eyes on two different lobsters,
the problem is the giant swarm of moon jellies.
- [Christina] I've been living out here for seven years
and I've never seen moon jellies like this.
It's just, it's brutal out there right now.
(dynamic melodic music)
- [Trent] A lot harder than you guys thought, huh?
- [Coyote] Yeah, we're getting destroyed by jellyfish.
I just got nailed in the back of my neck.
Ow!
Oh, shoot, ah!
- [Christina] You are surrounded right now.
- It is a biological landmine swarm of jellyfish, man.
Uh!
Ow!
Oh, my gosh, my face on fire right now.
My face went straight into a jellyfish full on,
like I went in and I just saw the whole thing like that.
I have so many jellyfish stings on my body right now,
it feels like it's throbbing.
Andrew has spotted a spiny lobster,
but it's wedged way down under rock
and the problem is it's like 15 feet deep here,
a lot harder to get down to
and we're surrounded by jellyfish.
So what we're gonna do
is switch up the story direction a little bit,
instead of us all being in the water at the same time,
Christina and I are going to take turns
diving down beneath the surface
to see if we can get one of these lobsters out of the rock.
So we could keep moving, but Andrew says the jellies
are going to be everywhere,
which means if you got a lobster, you gotta go for it.
So a couple of stings, but we're gonna get our lobster.
Here we go.
- [Both] Rock, paper, scissors, one, two, three.
- Boom, you're going in first.
Okay, I'll narrate from the surface.
Good luck with the moon jellies.
- Oh, man.
- [Coyote] Get it, Christina.
(water splashing)
(dynamic melodic music)
Mario and Christina just went down.
I'm actually kind of rooting for her
to get one on the first try,
because all we need is one lobster to present.
- Andrew was great, he showed me where the lobster was
and I reached my hand in there and it just scooted back
into the crevice and I just couldn't get it.
- [Coyote] So second attempt, Christina's gonna try the net
and the tickle stick method.
If you stick your hand into the crevice,
all a lobster's gonna do is go lock itself in tighter.
You've got to remember, those backward-turned spines
work like grappling hooks to keep them in their crevices.
So if you can get behind the lobster
and get it to tickle out, then you got the chance to net it.
Did you get it?
- That was a layer. - So close.
- This is, ah, this is a lot of cardio
and I haven't been doing a lot of of that.
- [Trent] You got this.
(dynamic melodic music)
(buzzer buzzing)
- [Coyote] Now? All right, we're coming in.
- 'Cause it just keeps shooting back into these crevices.
- I am up, this is my first attempt.
I'm going to try with the net and the tickle stick.
Christina made a solid effort
and good news is there's the lobster out in the open.
(water splashing)
- [Christina] And his pink trunks.
(dynamic melodic music)
(bell dinging)
(buzzer buzzing)
(dynamic melodic music)
(bell dinging)
We got it, we got it!
- Don't face it up, turn it back over and wrap them.
(dynamic melodic music)
He's right here, I got him.
(dynamic melodic music)
(buzzer buzzing)
(dynamic melodic music)
He's on the move. - Listening
- [Trent] You out of breath, there?
(people gasping)
Uh! (laughing)
(bell dinging)
- Right there, you got it! - Whoo!
(all laughing) - That was awesome!
- You got it, Christina! (Christina laughing)
- I came in with a sneak.
So this is a female spiny lobster
and she's holding eggs right now,
so this is very important to keep her in the water
and just really get her back to her home.
This is one tough sport, I gotta tell you
and it took us multiple tries, time to put her back.
She's beautiful, she's very important
to this reef system out here and what a fun day.
- Here is our quick recap, it was an amazing day today
out there trying to catch spiny lobster.
I nearly had one in the net actually multiple times
and then on my second attempt, I ran out of breath
and in between attempt number two and attempt number three,
Christina decided to come in and steal the show
to make the hand catch, now the lobster that we caught
in the natural environment was a female,
which means we needed to put her right back into the water.
But I do have a spiny lobster here in front of us,
this is a male that Andrew was kind enough
to catch for us yesterday.
First things first, I wanna give you guys a demonstration
of how the mouth works.
I read a story recently about a man here in Florida,
who was lobster fishing and as he was going for his lobster
actually grabbing it, it bit onto his finger through a glove
and removed the top of his pinky.
So we do know that they bite and to demonstrate that,
I'm sure you're all thinking, "Coyote, stick your finger
into this lobster's mouth."
That I'm probably not going to do,
because I don't want the top of my pinky to come off.
They have these serrated mouth parts,
that almost look like the shears of a scissor.
Now I'm gonna take this baby carrot here
and imagine that as my pointer finger.
You get that into the mouth
like this and like this and all of a sudden,
ooh, the top of your finger is coming off.
The number one defense for these crustaceans
is of course their spines, that's where they get the name
and this is where it gets a little risky.
I'm gonna attempt to pick up this crustacean
and those backward-turned spines are like little fish hooks.
Now I wanna pick it up by its thorax
and it's probably not gonna be super happy about that,
so let's see what happens.
(tense melodic music)
(water splashing)
Yep, that looks super spiny.
All right, let me give that a second attempt,
I've just gotta go for it and own it, here we go.
Whoa, that is a strong crustacean right there,
look at that guy.
That is just an alien of the most bizarre design.
Look at the underside of that arthropod.
Now you notice it doesn't have big pinchers like its cousin,
the American lobster up in Maine,
which would be growing off the front here
and of course we've seen has pinched me in the past.
The mouth part is actually right there in the middle.
Now this one probably could give me a pretty good nip,
if I shoved my finger into the mouth,
but when these things get bigger,
remember they can grow to be nearly 15 pounds in weight.
This one's less than a pound,
that's a pretty big crustacean,
so you could see why it was capable
of taking off the tip of somebody's pinky finger.
I'm not gonna stick my finger into this lobster's mouth,
but you can see the real protection on this guy
is these spines, backward-turned spikes,
so that when they lodge themselves underneath the rocks,
they're like a grappling hook locked in place
and they're really difficult to pull out
for any potential predator.
Now all of the muscle in this animal is here in the tail
and for those who eat lobsters,
this is exactly what you're going for.
But believe it or not, when these things get big enough,
there's actually edible meat inside of the, ah!
Inside of the antenna and I think, yep,
it just popped a hole in my pinky finger right there.
Thanks for that, buddy.
Apparently there are also spines
on the underside of the tail,
those are without question razor sharp.
Alright, I'm gonna set you down in the water for a second
just to keep you dehydrated. (water splashing)
It's important to note that these lobsters
can be out the water for a considerable amount of time.
And at this point, I have a few holes poked into my hand
just from holding onto him, remember I've been underwater,
so my skin's a little softer than it normally would be.
When we wanna answer the question,
does it bite or does it sting?
They certainly do not sting, even though it looks
like something covered in spines that may be venomous,
but no venom, no poison that comes with this crustacean.
What you need to watch out for are the spines,
however, it is capable of biting.
Remember my demonstration earlier
with cutting the baby carrot?
Those are like serrated razor blades
and they can snip through even the shells
of molluscs and other crustaceans.
So this thing is a formidable predator when it needs to be,
but in most instances, it ends up being a prey animal.
Ow, I just keep getting whacked by that tail
and every time I do,
it's cutting little slices into my skin.
Well, the good news for this lobster
is that it's not going to end up in a boiling pot of water,
but it was a challenge out here, I gotta say,
anybody that's free diving down
to catch one of these spiny lobsters,
it's a much more difficult task than one might think.
So at this point, we're gonna get
this bizarre-looking crustacean back into the wild
and we're gonna call it a very successful day.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see on the next adventure.
All right, time to get you back into the ocean.
(dynamic melodic music)
Hey, Coyote Pack,
If you're a fan of Brave Wilderness adventures,
then you'll really like all of the incredible t-shirts,
hoodies, hats and other merch at shopbravewilderness.com.
Head over right now to gear up for your next adventure.
(dynamic melodic music)
(big cat roaring)
(bird calling)
(birds chirping)