Coming up!
The Blue World team goes out searching for an undiscovered ocean cave!
It’s an epic adventure!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
The islands of the Bahamas are filled with formations called Blue Holes.
They look like ponds, but they are actually deep holes in the limestone formed by erosion
over thousands of years.
In previous episodes of Jonathan Bird’s Blue World, we have explored some of these
mysterious sinkholes, like Cousteau’s Blue Hole on Andros.
Some Blue holes were formed when the sea level was lower, thousands of years in the past.
Now that the oceans are higher, those blue holes are underwater.
These ocean blue holes are filled with sea water.
Because ocean blue holes often lead into cave systems which connect to other ocean blue
holes, water can be pushed through these cave systems as the tide goes in or out.
This strong current in the cave can suck a cave diver in--to his death.
The Exuma Islands of the Bahamas are famous for ocean blue holes.
Recently we explored Angelfish Blue Hole, a well-known and easily-accessible ocean blue
hole of Exuma.
But today we are on a mission.
We want to find and explore an undiscovered ocean blue hole.
Since the water in the Bahamas is so clear, and the ocean blue holes usually occur in
a shallow spot, they can be seen from the air.
But that also means they can be seen from a satellite.
So we start our search with Google Earth.
We’re hunting for a dark spot that could be a blue hole, and not too far from shore.
Cameraman Zach has zeroed in on a possible candidate.
So you think that’s a blue hole?
That’s a blue hole!
I mean, it’s got the nice shape of the cave, it’s got that dark blue.
The next day we head over to see our friends Tamara and Jonathan at Dive Exuma to get some
scuba tanks for our adventure.
Then it’s off to a remote part of the island in a quest to find our blue hole.
On a lonely section of the island we come to the end of the road and there should be
an ocean blue hole just offshore.
Wow!
Look at that blue!
There has got to be a cave down there!
I think we should launch the drone and have a quick look before, yeah.
Ok let’s do it.
Zach-of-all-Trades launches the drone for a peek.
And from the air it looks promising.
It’s definitely a deep depression in the sea floor.
It has all the makings of a great cave dive.
But the only way to be sure is to get a look underwater.
So it looks good from the drone, but before we suit up and take all of our gear and swim
way over there, I sent Zach on an exploratory mission!
Better him than me.
From the shore it looks pretty close, but it’s actually a long swim.
So Cameraman Zach can scope it out faster by snorkeling than we could with all of our
scuba gear.
How was it?
What is it?
That is a huge blue hole!
Really?
Huge!
So…
Okay, is there a lot of flow?
Not a lot.
I was having trouble getting down, but when I stood over it, it started pulling me a little
towards the hole, so I think its siphoning a little bit right now.
But there’s tons of fish.
There’s a big turtle down there.
Wow!
Let’s go!
I think we go.
Our dive plan’s gotta be that we should do a sediment test.
So when we get down in there we can drop some sediment up.
If we see it going in, we don’t go very far.
Right.
Not very far.
But this is exploration!
That’s what you do.
You Never know!
With the knowledge that there probably is a cave to explore, we start suiting up and
preparing for the dive.
After a long swim, we finally make it all the way over to the blue hole and submerge.
There’s no sign of that sea turtle, but there is a big school of grunts.
The walls leading down into the depths are steep, and soon we are entering the cavern
zone.
There is an old lost fish trap.
Zach ties off his reel and we head into the cave.
We can feel that the current is coming out of the cave, so it’s safe for us to head
in.
Along the walls of the cave, there are all kinds of life that you don’t see in diving
inland Blue holes.
The constant flushing of seawater brings nutrients and food to creatures in the cave.
A lot of the fuzzy looking stuff on the walls of the cave are hydroids and other invertebrates
that sting humans, but crabs are immune.
When Zach reaches the end of his primary reel, he ties on another spool.
After progressing another hundred feet into the cave, something starts to feel different.
So I check the current.
Now the sand is getting sucked further into the cave.
The tide has turned.
It’s time for us to get out of here, and fast.
Back in the cavern zone, we can see daylight from above.
We slowly rise into shallower water to do our mandatory decompression.
In an inland blue hole, this might be kind of boring.
But here in the ocean, there is plenty of marine life to observe.
A school of tangs are nibbling on algae.
A lionfish is stalking prey.
Lionfish are absolutely beautiful, but they are an invasive species in these waters.
It seems like fish love the entrance to a cave.
But fish aren’t the only residents here.
Under a shelf, I find an army of spiny lobsters all lined up, as if guarding their domain.
Spiny lobsters don’t have big claws like the lobsters in the North Atlantic, but their
thick antennae are covered in sharp spines, making them formidable weapons.
Finally our decompression is completed and we can ascend back to the surface.
We make our long swim back to shore where Zach of all trades is waiting to hear the
report.
We found a blue hole and discovered it…dove it first…we think.
I mean, there’s no way to really know.
Yeah!
Mission completed.
Ocean blue holes are beautiful and intriguing formations, only found in a few places on
Earth.
Exuma is blessed with dozens--maybe even hundreds--of these mysterious hidden gems.
But people only regularly dive a handful of the easily accessible ones.
We set out to find and explore our own blue hole, and there is a great sense of pride
and satisfaction in finding something new and mysterious.
We have no way of knowing if we were the first ones to dive this blue hole.
Maybe not.
But its safe to say its unlikely that very many other people have ever seen the inside
of this cave.
And since it has no official name, we have decided to call it the Blue World Blue Hole!
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