(dramatic music)
- That was amazing!
Our first sea turtle encounter.
Woo!
- [Mark] High five.
A turtle!
Turtle experience.
(airplane engine purrs)
- [Narrator] One of the most important aspects
of producing episodes for the Brave Wilderness Channel
is deciding what locations to explore.
We choose these epic backdrops,
not only based on their visual appearance,
but also on the variety of animals
that we may possibly encounter.
The stunning visual backdrop of the Hawaiian islands
is one of the most incredible places we have ever filmed.
And while the pre-historic looking mountains
and dense jungles were picture perfect,
it was actually the ocean wildlife
that we were interested in.
Right now, we are on the coast of Kauai,
on a remote beach.
And I told you guys,
eventually we were going to go beyond the tide.
And today is our first day of snorkeling.
So what we're gonna do is put on our gear,
get into this crystal-clear water,
and see what sort of animals we can get close to
with our under-water cameras.
You guys ready?
- [Chance] Let's do it.
- [Mario] Alright, let's gear up,
and head out to the tides.
- [Chance] Mahalo!
Below the surface of the surrounding Pacific Ocean,
lives an incredibly diverse world of plants and animals,
which made this location
an absolute must on this year's production schedule.
However, before we could scuba dive below the surface,
first we needed to scout several locations
to determine where the best reefs existed,
and also what kind of animals called these
underwater refugees home.
For decades,
snorkeling has been a popular recreational activity.
Particularly at tropical resort locations.
The appeal is that it gives the opportunity
to observe underwater life in a natural setting.
And for us, it was the perfect preparation
for our upcoming scuba episodes.
Woo! How'd you do, Mario?
- That was awesome!
Saw some really cool stuff.
I saw like a four foot long pipefish.
- [Chance] Really?
- Yeah.
- Get a shot of it?
- Hopefully.
- See what I got.
It's really hard to film down there, huh?
- [Mario] Yeah, yeah, it's pretty neat, though,
it's like, the jungle in the ocean.
Ya know?
They're full of wildlife.
- [Chance] Totally.
- Yeah, really cool.
- [Chance] Filming under water is difficult.
So we relied heavily on GoPro Cameras to capture images.
Mario, Mark and myself
all began to explore the crystal-clear water
investigating as best we could
with the hopes of spotting animals
we might be able to get close with,
or even safely catch and bring to the surface
to present in more detail.
- Woo!
Wow!
We spot some pretty epic stuff so far.
Lots of bio-diversity.
Huge sea cucumbers.
Huge sea urchins.
I saw some puffer fish, that was pretty cool.
I saw maybe we move spots.
Try to find a spot that I heard about that has sea turtles.
What do you guys think about that?
- [Chance] That sounds awesome.
- Alright, let's head back into shore
and switch locations.
- [Chance] Alright.
The first location was beautiful.
But unfortunately, the biodiversity was a little sparse.
So we decided to explore a second spot.
- Alright, guys, we made it to our next spot.
Mario, you look pretty ready.
- Yup, let's do it.
- See some deeper pockets of blue out there,
which means deeper water
and even better places to explore.
So you guys are ready,
let's gear up
and get into the water.
- [Chance] Alright.
Let's head back out, guys.
- [Mario] Let's do it!
- [Chance] Our second snorkel location
was immediately promising.
For within a few moments of being beneath the surface,
we came upon a green sea turtle.
This reptile's diet varies based on age.
As youngsters, they are opportunistic,
feasting on almost anything that comes across their paths.
However, once they reach adult size,
like the one seen here,
their diet strictly becomes marine plants,
like sea grass and algae.
For nearly ten minutes,
we respectfully observe this giant marine turtle,
until a few strong strokes of its front flippers
propelled it forward.
And we watched as it disappeared
into the haze of the current.
- Woo!
Wow!
That was amazing!
Our first sea turtle encounter.
I got some epic shots, how about you?
- [Mark] Oh yeah, man, I had you in the parade.
That was so cool.
Man, it just, it didn't mind us being there at all.
- [Mario] No, I just stayed a safe distant.
I mean, I was extended all the way out with my AquaPod.
Probably at least 10 feet back from it,
but with this I was able to get super close.
That was epic.
Woo!
- [Mark] High five.
- A turtle!
Turtle experience.
Oh my gosh, that was amazing.
- [Mark] We're pretty far from shore.
- [Mario] Yeah we are, man, we kept following.
Let's head back in that direction.
- [Mark] Alright.
- [Mario] We are way out there.
- [Chance] Seeing a green sea turtle was magical,
but strict protections prevented us
from making contact with the animal.
And it's certainly not one we were allowed to catch
and bring to the surface.
So it was time to scout the next location.
I'm pretty confident we might see some
of the animals we're gonna be filming later this week.
- [Mario] Yeah, that's the goal,
scouting this location to determine what lives here
and then think about what we can actually bring up
from the depths and bring in front of the cameras.
- Yup.
- [Mario] It isn't easy filming under water.
- Yeah, well and when you're diving,
when you're at depth, your maneuverability
really limited because, ya know,
you're weighted down, you've got the tank,
you've got all the gear.
You've got a really limited amount of time
because you only have so much air.
When we're snorkeling,
we can cruise the surface super fast,
cover a much wider net of area.
Ya know, really just see where the animals
are hanging out because that's the who idea of this,
is to figure out where to target.
So, today we're gonna be takin' a lot of mental notes,
then we get back to the truck, taking physical notes
on where we're gonna dive here in a couple days.
- [Chance] Mario, you ready?
Alright, guys,
I'm gettin' my mask on.
We're headin' out there.
They say third time's a charm.
And as we held our breath
and disappeared beneath the crashing waves,
the reef below us reveled a world of marine animals.
Fish of all shapes, sizes and colors
darted in every direction.
Some of them were so brilliantly bright,
it almost seemed unreal.
I have to admit,
the toughest part about snorkeling
is holding your breath.
And at best, I was able to hold my breath
for around a minute
before I needed to turn to the surface
for a much-needed gasp of air.
- [Chance] What did you see?
- Huge sea urchin!
Oh my gosh!
Biggest sea urchin I've ever seen!
- [Mario] It was like a basketball.
- [Mark] Oh man!
That is not the kind of urchin you wanna run into,
that's for sure.
I think I got a pretty good shot of it,
deep down at at least 25 feet, I'd say.
- [Chance] On my next trek beneath the surface,
I found one completely safe animal
that I decided to bring to the surface.
The red slate pencil urchin.
Wow!
That is crazy cool looking!
Well, as you can see,
all these little appendages
are gonna allow it to lock it to the rocks.
And, this one was on a flat surface like that,
so without these little arms extended out into a crevice.
- [Chance] They are really stuck to those rocks.
- They really are, like,
extreme in anchor points.
It's interesting because this one doesn't seem to have
tube feet like some of the others,
but maybe behind all those little arms stickin' off they do.
Good thing is, it's not spikey.
So this one doesn't appear to be venomous or poisonous.
Totally safe, right?
- [Mark] Yeah, that's fine.
- Not gonna hurt you at all.
That's awesome.
So much biodiversity now here.
Alright, well lots of clouds rollin' in here.
We're actually gettin' dragged pretty close to these rocks.
So, I think at this point,
let's place is back down beneath the surface
and head into shore.
You guys ready?
- [Mark] Yeah.
- [Chance] This species is incredibly plentiful
in the coastal water of the Hawainn islands.
And they get the name pencil urchin
because of their radial spines that resemble red pencils.
For nearly an hour, we explored the reef
and saw more animals than we could've ever imagined.
The biodiversity was incredible,
and we knew this would be the perfect place
to set our scuba diving episodes.
- Man, talk about an epic location!
There were so many marine animals out there.
When they said it was bio-diverse,
man they hit the nail on the head.
- [Mark] How about those turtles, first of all?
- Dude, the sea turtles were amazing.
I got better shots of sea turtles today
than I've ever gotten with snapping turtles before.
And I think it almost warrants us
doing a sea turtle episode.
- [Mark] I think not only do we need to do a sea turtle
episode, but I need to get back out there
with our tanks because every time
we did one of those deep dives,
the place just opened up with new creatures.
There was sea urchins, there was all kinds of cool fish,
and we know down there, there are eels and octupus
and gotta have the tanks to see those creatures.
- Well, stay tuned, guys,
because our first scuba diving adventure
is coming up here real soon.
I'm Coyote Peter sayin'
be brave, stay wild,
we'll see you on the next location.
Woo!
Hey Coyote Pack.
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for the Brave Adventures tour yet?
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I am so proud to have written this book
and it was inspired by a lot of the adventures we have had.