Coming up!
Jonathan heads to Roatan to discover some of the healthiest reefs in the Caribbean,
and the animals that live there!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
The Blue World team has traveled to the tropical island of Roatan to explore some of
the healthiest reefs in the Caribbean.
Roatan is an island located 40 miles off the coast of mainland Honduras in central America.
It’s a popular vacation destination for North Americans, not only because of nice
beaches and proximity to the U.S., but also because of the healthy marine environment.
Zach, Diver Ed and I start our day meeting Lindey Warren of Infinity Divers.
Lindey is a very famous Roatan divemaster and we’re lucky to have him to show us around.
Well, we’re here in beautiful Roatan, Honduras.
It’s a beautiful day, and we’re going to do some nice tropical diving baby.
This is my favorite kind of diving—nice warm water.
Check this out!
Roatan is known for super healthy coral reefs and a robust population of sea turtles.
And while we have seen sea turtles many times, we are hoping to capture some really interesting
behaviors.
We tie up at a popular site known for really great coral, and deep channels that bring
clear water in to the shallows.
I’m going to have a super easy and fun dive because I’m testing out my new IMAX camera.
Actually it’s a GoPro Hero10 that shoots in 5K.
Even though Lindey has done more than 10,000 dives, he never gets bored of showing people
these beautiful sites.
He leads us down through a channel in the reef.
It dumps us out on the wall at 110 feet.
Here the reef drops precipitously into the blue.
The light down here is low, and the GoPro image quality is kinda noisy.
We follow Lindey on a search for a sea turtle.
Along the way, I can’t help but notice all the interesting sponges.
I’m a sucker for a pretty sponge.
Some of these barrel sponges grow quite large, and the beauty of a GoPro is getting an interesting
perspective.
Lionfish are invasive in the Caribbean—transplants from the Pacific.
However they have become quite numerous on the reefs here.
Lindey is using all of his divemaster powers in the search for sea turtles, but so far
we are coming up empty.
Soon it’s time to start heading back towards shallower water, and Lindey has a cool secret
passage.
We swim into another channel through the reef.
This one is almost like a cave.
It’s kind of dark, but a little sunlight still twinkles through the cracks.
We pop out of the shadows, at a perfect depth for a safety stop.
But we have plenty of stuff to see.
There are tons of fish such as schools of grunts.
I find a school of surgeonfish.
These herbivores perform an important function for the health of the reef.
They swarm from coral head to coral head, consuming the algae that grow on the reef.
By keeping the algae at bay, they insure the health of the coral.
The algae never stops growing in the abundant sunshine, so the fish have a never ending
supply of food.
Once they get used to me, I can get close for some awesome shots!
With our safety stop completed, we head back up to the boat.
We didn’t find a single turtle!
Where are they all?
Man what a great dive.
Swim throughs, healthy coral, lots of color, great dive!
Lindey has another spot in mind, where we should find some turtles.
We haven’t been in the water more than 30 seconds before we find our first sea turtle.
It’s a small female Hawksbill searching for lunch.
She has some red algae on her shell.
She could really use a few surgeonfish!
I’m going to call her Fuzzbutt.
Even though sea turtles live their whole lives in the ocean, they are still reptiles and
need to breathe air at the surface.
So every 5-10 minutes, a sea turtle must go up for a few breaths.
Catch ya later Fuzzbutt!
In the meantime, we have a look around.
We find a few more lionfish.
They might not belong here, but they are still one of the most beautiful fish on the reef.
But don’t touch, because those spines are extremely venomous.
Speaking of venomous, the scorpionfish is easy to miss with that awesome camouflage.
And this fish packs venomous dorsal spines too.
I spy an Indigo Hamlet.
They are a little more common here than in the rest of the Caribbean, but it’s still
a rare sight.
Lindey is filming something with his GoPro and another turtle comes down to investigate.
Turtles can be quite curious and they know that divers will not hurt them.
This lady is hungry and she is on a mission to find a snack.
Finally she finds her favorite food, which is a particularly tough sponge.
Fish can’t eat these sponges because they simply can’t bite into them.
And she is having a hard time too.
Not many animals find sponges particularly good to eat.
But sea turtles, and a few species of fish, can digest the tough fibers.
Finally she finds the perfect sponge and begins ripping it open.
Almost immediately a Queen angelfish joins the party to mooch a few scraps.
The angelfish could never eat this sponge without the turtle’s help.
And word gets out fast.
Soon a Gray angelfish shows up at the table.
And then another.
It’s a full-on buffet.
This sea turtle has a scar on her left side.
Maybe from a shark bite when she was younger, so I’m calling her Sharkbait.
She doesn’t mind if I get in close to watch.
All this eating is making me hungry.
The food at this restaurant is pretty good, but she needs to breathe.
While Sharkbait goes for a breath, two more Hawksbills show up.
Oh wait, it’s Fuzzbutt, followed closely behind by another female Hawsbill.
I don’t know where all the males are.
Maybe they slept in?
Fuzzbutt and the other Hawksbill are circling around, almost as if they are trying to find
something.
A few minutes later, Fuzzbutt has somehow discovered Sharkbait’s half-eaten sponge,
and picks up where she left off, biting off large chunks.
The angelfish don’t seem particularly picky about who they steal their scraps from.
But soon Sharkbait is back from her trip to the surface to breathe, and she is not happy
to find Fuzzbutt eating her sponge.
It comes to a head, and an argument breaks out.
It looks violent but they are not really hurting each other.
Eventually Fuzzbutt swims away, leaving Sharkbait to continue feeding on her sponge.
I’m really excited to witness this interesting behavior.
Who knew that fish could take advantage of a sea turtle’s strong jaws?
We might have scuba gear allowing us to breathe underwater, but like the sea turtles, we must
eventually surface as well.
And all that feeding action is making me hungry, so it’s time to head back to the dock for
lunch.
The beautiful reefs of Roatan certainly did not disappoint.
From the coral swim-throughs to the abundance of fish, and of course the amazing sea turtles,
Roatan is a lovely place to explore the Blue World.
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