Next on Jonathan Bird's Blue World, a dive
in Maine with Diver Ed and a close call
with a lobster!
Hi I'm Jonathan Bird and welcome to my world!
( ♪ music )
Today I'm in beautiful Bar Harbor, Maine, where I'm spending the day with my friend
Diver Ed and his amazing Dive-In Theatre Program aboard the Starfish Enterprise.
"See if it grabs a hold of your head hair. ( ed laughs ) Man, look at all the hair it pulled
out of my head."
Diver Ed takes families out on his boat up in Bar Harbor every summer for an underwater
adventure, where nobody has to get wet—except him.
I'm Diver Ed. You have already met my lively wife Captain Evil right over here...
Ed's wife Edna is known as Captain Evil, although I don't know why. She seems perfectly nice
to me. She's part of the show, and so are the family dogs.
"Pull it apart; stick it on over your head. If you've got big floppy ears you can pull
them through like that. The strap on the side goes around your back. On the end of the strap
is a clip, you just clip it to the ring in the front, and then pull on the free end to
tighten it. Everyone give him a hand! Good job, way to go!"
And members of the audience get deputized too...
Ed: "What's your name?"
Boy: (mumbles)
Ed: "What is it?"
Boy: "Noah"
Ed: "Noah? Noah, you're my head passenger in charge of the toilet today Noah. Noah the
toilet boy! Woohoo! Everybody loves a good toilet boy."
Edna: This is mini Ed number 124...
Diver Ed always takes a dive buddy with him it's dangerous to dive alone. And since I
am joining the dive today, they get a buddy for me too.
This is mini-Jonathan and umm he's got force fins on. He will be diving today and he is
going to be filming the expedition down there so he' ready to go.
We're not in the tropics up in Maine. The water temperature today is only 50 degrees.
Jonathan: "Lot of stuff for cold water."
Diver Ed and I get a little help jumping into the water.
On your mark, get set, go!
Once we are under water, Diver Ed wastes no time. He madly swims around collecting creatures
to bring back on board for the passengers to examine and touch. I can barely keep up
with his frantic pace.
When he has collected enough specimens, he heads back to the surface to get his specially
equipped high definition underwater camera to take people on a real time underwater adventure.
The lights bring the ocean bottom alive for his passengers back on the boat.
He's got a sea cucumber. This is a relative of starfish, and starfish have five rows of
suction cup feet.
As Diver Ed and Mini-Ed check out a sea cucumber, Captain Evil gives the audience a lesson.
EDNA: So there's the mouth and you can see that it looks just a lot like the butt. It's
pretty hard to be an animal where your mouth looks just like your butt, but that's the
way it is for sea cucumbers.
Diver Ed and his camera find the most amazing creatures, right under the boat.
EDNA: That's very very cute diver Ed, look he's got a little spike on his head. He's
adorable. So all that stuff, he sticks on.
Ed: Look it, he's so cute!
Edna: I know, he's looking right at us. Look at his little grumpy mouth. ( laughs ) Oh man.
As Diver Ed and I continue across the bottom, he shows the audience all kinds of amazing
animals that live in the cold water of the North Atlantic, while Edna narrates from above.
Edna: This is a baby sea scallop. Look at those eyes, all those black dots that look
like poppy seeds are eyes. Scallops have two rows of eyes rimming each shell, nobody knows
why so you guys should go to college and become marine biologists and tell me why because
I want to know. This is a baby.
In between sea stars, skulpins and other cool critters, Diver Ed and I have some fun goofing
around.
Edna: Hey! You found something else down here, what's this? ( laughs ) This is Jonathan
Bird, how cool. Not quite sure what he's saying. ( laughs ) It's probably good to breathe.
Meanwhile, mini Ed has found himself a mysterious looking shell.
That's not just a shell! It's a hermit crab!
Edna: Now you can see a Hermit crab has two different size claws, they're actually more
closely related to a lobster than a crab. And there's his eyes. Boy okay here he comes
Diver Ed, he's peeking out. He just has to know.
Edna: Diver Ed, what a night shot, what a cute shrimp this is.
And then Ed finds an angry lobster.
Edna: He's beautiful but he doesn't look friendly. Oh yikes! Listen, I don't know why we have
to keep getting new cameras. There he goes Diver Ed.
Ed: Ah! The lobster is after me!
Edna: Something has gone horribly wrong.
Ed: Ah help me please! Ahh! Ahh!
Edna: Diver Ed, you need help and you need it now. His buddy is going to have to come over.
Ed: ( screams inaudible words )
Edna: Oh no Diver Ed, mini Ed needs help now he is in big trouble. Oh man Diver Ed you've
gotta do something, he is being used as a battering ram.
After his escape from the lobster, poor mini Ed stumbles into the clutches of a stinging anemone.
Edna: Diver Ed, can you do anything? I don't think he can move. Oh I can't believe you
did that. I told him not to do this.
Ed: I found him, unfortunately his heart stopped. He needs CPR right away!
Edna: All right, mini Ed's heart stopped, he now needs CPR. Two rescue breaths, a couple
of chest compressions; fortunately Eddie is certified in CPR. This is a really good reason
why you should always go with a dive buddy, in case you need underwater CPR.
Ed: No need to worry, I brought him back life.
Edna: Diver Ed, thank goodness for that. So it worked.
Ed: Woohoo!
Edna: Good use of the buddy system, I'm glad you were there for him.
Mini-Jonathan meanwhile is so busy filming, he's not paying attention...and whoa buddy,
lookout from behind!
Fortunately I come to the rescue and Mini-Jonathan is going to be O.K.
The dive is so exhilarating that Diver Ed and I are pretty pumped when we surface! I
mean really pumped! I mean pumped up!
Ed: You're going to be a clam I'm going to be a starfish. Now unfortunately, for Lindsay
the clam, it's feeding time for me, Eddie the starfish. If I wanted to eat Lindsay the
clam I'd grab a hold of those two shells with my arms and with the suction cup feet, hold
on really tight. Now I'd spread those shells as far apart as possible, eject my stomach
out of my mouth. You ready? (Strange noise) Stick it down between the two shells, suck
all of her guts into my stomach, once my stomach is full I suck it back into my mouth. You've
got some great tasting guts Lindsay! All right, give her a hand, great job Lindsay way to go.
Ed: This is a sea scallop, a lot of people want to know what I do for a living in the winter time,
I dive for (ahhh) I didn't know that was going to happen, did you?
Ed: Everyone knows what this is!
Kids: Lobster!
Ed: Lobsters have two kinds of claws; the bigger one is used for crushing things, what
kind of claw is that? Crusher claw, good. What about the smaller one that pinches things?
Girl: Pincher and ripping claw!
Ed: Pinching claw, good, let's see if it pinches. Come on lobster, see if you can get me.
Edna: If it's clear, that's just salt water. Any idea what it's gonna be doing if it starts
to turn brown? Going poopie! That's the butt end of the sea cucumber.
Ed: They can really tighten up their muscles and make themselves hard and round. Not only
that, but they secrete a wonderful mucus. (eww) That makes them really slippery.
Ed: Now if anybody ever asks you, Rebecca, if you learned anything on this trip today,
what are you going to say? Yes or no, did you learn anything?
Rebecca: Yeah.
Ed: Okay good, yes is the correct answer.
After the show, everyone gets to examine the specimens and even hold them, before Diver
Ed returns them to the ocean unharmed.
Eventually it's time to head back. My dive buddy Mini-Jonathan and I will never forget
this day aboard the Starfish Enterprise.
( ♪ music )