Coming up, the Bird family heads to Australia in search of the world’s most exotic seahorse,
the Leafy sea dragon!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
I love seahorses, and I have filmed many different species all over the world.
I have always wanted to see a Leafy Seadragon, which is almost certainly the rarest, most
spectacular seahorse in the world.
They’re only found in one place—the waters of southern Australia.
It’s summer vacation, and the whole family is joining me on a Blue World expedition to
South Australia.
The kids have never been on a flight this long.
We are traveling to the other side of the world, from Boston all the way to Adelaide,
with a stop in Dubai.
It’s two 12 hour flights back to back!
We just flew from right here on the map, to Dubai, right here and then to Adelaide.
Well, it took 30 hours but we made it to Adelaide, South Australia!
Sleeping on a plane is difficult, so we’re totally exhausted.
But we still have to load our rental van and drive down to our rental house in Rapid Bay.
Rapid Bay is a beautiful place, located about 100 km south of Adelaide.
We rented a house right on the ocean.
It’s windy and not that warm.
It may be summer at home, but here in the southern hemisphere, it’s winter.
There is not much between Rapid bay and Antarctica except ocean.
The next morning we make a run up to Adelaide for scuba tanks.
Then it’s over to the dive site—the Rapid Bay Jetty.
The roads are a blast—even if I am in a minivan--but I have to remember to drive on
the left!
Well, I finally made it to the Jetty here in Rapid Bay in South Australia, one of the
best places in the world to find one of the rarest seahorses in the world, the Leafy Seadragon!
The Jetty in Rapid Bay was originally built for loading limestone from the local quarry
on to cargo ships.
The quarry up on the hillside is still here, but no longer used.
The original jetty fell into disrepair but it was so popular with the locals for fishing,
that they spent 3 million dollars building a new one just for recreation.
It’s popular with fishermen and divers.
We meet up with Daniel Kinasz, a local dive instructor.
As a local expert, he knows how to find the seadragons!
We take a quick walk down the jetty while Daniel explains the dive to me and Christine,
then it’s time for everyone to suit up.
Christine and I are putting on our dry suits.
Drysuits are kind of a pain but it beats being cold.
The kids unfortunately don’t have dry suits yet, so they’ll have to dive in wetsuits.
But hey, they are kids, they can take it!
The water is only 55° Fahrenheit.
That’s 13° Celsius!
Chilly!
It’s time for the long walk down the jetty.
Or should I say a long walk off a short pier?
Fortunately, when they built the jetty, they kept divers in mind, so there is a nice staircase
right into the water.
Woo!
The wind is howling and the water is rough.
But in we go!
As we sink down, I’m a little disappointed by the visibility.
We knew it would be cold, but we didn’t count on a storm churning up the sediment.
I can barely see Daniel ahead of me as we begin our search for Leafy Seadragons.
We’re hunting in the seaweed, because that’s where their camouflage allows them to hide
the best.
After what seems like forever, we finally find one!
It’s not easy to film in the surgy conditions, but this is a master of camouflage, looking
exactly like a drifting piece of seaweed within the seaweed garden on the ocean floor.
Obviously this is not an animal designed for speed.
No seahorses are fast, but this one is positively sluggish with all those leafy projections.
But who needs to be fast when you can blend in?
Predators just don’t see the Leafy Seadragon.
This seadragon does use whatever speed it has to try to escape the glare of my bright
lights.
But once it figures out that I’m going to hurt it, the seadragon relaxes a little bit
and allows me to get in for some close-ups.
I don’t even notice the cold water when I’m filming something awesome like this!
Once we know how to find them, they are easier to spot.
Elise finds a pair of smaller ones.
These conditions can’t be easy for the little seadragons.
With the kids in wetsuits, they get cold fairly soon, so we head back out of the water.
The kids are cold, but excited.
We huff our gear back to the van.
Shore diving is a lot of work!
Now for our least favorite part.
We came a long way for this little fish.
But it was worth it!
I’ve waited 20 years to see a Leafy Seadragon.
It’s one of the weirdest, most camouflaged animals I’ve ever seen, a true wonder of
the Blue World!
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