Coming up next on Jonathan Bird's Blue World, Jonathan explores a thousand feet down in
a submarine!
Hi, I'm Jonathan Bird and welcome to my world!
Scuba diving is more than just an exciting sport. It's also a very effective way to explore
the underwater portions of our planet, and even conduct scientific research. But it has
one limitation—depth.
Traditional scuba gear has a practical depth limit of about 200 feet. As a result, we know
very little about life beyond this limit because exploration in deeper water is so much more
difficult.
But you know me...I always have a plan. And today I'm going to explore the deep waters
around Cocos Island...in a submarine.
This isn't just any submarine. This is the Deep See, operated by the Undersea Hunter
group off the support ship Argo. It can dive to over 1,000 feet!
Our team is 300 miles off the coast of Costa Rica at Cocos Island. It takes 30 hours just
to get here.
This uninhabited speck of paradise in the Pacific Ocean is filled with waterfalls and
lush rainforest.
Anchored in the calm lee of the island, the Argo is my home away from home for a week.
The waters around Cocos feature steep drop-offs, filled with fish. And sharks.
Hammerheads come here to be cleaned of parasites and dead skin by legions of hard-working butterflyfish.
Sometimes, the water above is filled with shivers of hammerheads!
Occasionally, the world's largest fish makes an appearance. I get lucky when a whale shark
passes by! But I want to see what's way down deep, and to do that, I'll need that submarine.
My adventure begins with a safety briefing. Samuel Blum, known to his friends as "Shmulik"
gives me an introduction to the emergency features of the submersible. Shmulik is the
manager of the sub operation and the chief pilot.
Next I weigh in. In order to load the correct amount of ballast in the sub, they need to
know the total weight of everything in it, including the passengers. It's a little tricky
to get an accurate reading on a rocking boat!
Next it's time to change into my blue submarine jumpsuit.
Everybody in the sub wears a blue jumpsuit to minimize reflections in the dome, because
the water outside is blue too.
While I'm getting my briefing, the sub is being launched. They keep it out of the water
for safety until just before it's time to depart on a mission.
That big sphere on the front is where the people go, and it affords a wide view of the
underwater world!
Okay, red handle, I see that...
Now it's the moment of truth—time for me to climb into the sub.
It has started to rain, so the crew has placed a rain cover over the sub to keep water out
of the cockpit.
Once I finagle my way into the cramped cockpit, the crew closes the dome and latches it down,
sealing it shut.
Inside, Avi, the pilot for today's mission and Shmulik work through their pre-dive checklist.
And outside, the crew prepares the sub for departure.
First, we pull away from the Argo.
Next, we are connected to a surface tender for a tow out to the dive site. This saves
the batteries on the sub for the actual dive, and also makes getting to the site faster.
Shmulik is on the radio with the tender, coordinating the mission.
OK, so we are going with the current right now, correct?
The first time you guys drove this thing, did it completely freak you out that there
is water at the bottom?
It's actually...we start to freak out when the water gets to our feet.
It's a very strange feeling to be sitting inside what is essentially a half-submerged
fish bowl in the ocean!
And the conditions today are not particularly calm. It's a rough ride to the dive site.
Soon Jose the diver comes over to disengage our tow rope so we can submerge.
Avi releases air from the ballast tanks and we start to sink.
Soon, we slip beneath the waves.
Shmulik waves goodbye to Jose as we sink away from the rough water at the surface.
I can't believe the amazing view out of the top of this submarine. I can see 360 degrees
in all directions! It's incredible!
As we sink into the first 100 feet of water, the light coming into the cockpit gets really
blue like the ocean, but there isn't much sensation of depth because there is nothing
to see outside and there is no change in pressure inside.
A school of hammerheads passes over, not concerned about the sub.
Soon we reach the top of a seamount that the crew refers to as Mount Everest. It's one
of their favorite dive sites.
We're at the top of Mount Everest, which is actually a huge rock. The bottom is 300 feet
deep, and the top is 150 feet deep. The currents, the deep water currents, come along and they
hit this rock, and they go up the side. They bring upwelling and nutrients with them and
it's a great place for the fish, they love to hang out here. And we're just hiding behind
the rock, checking out the fish.
As we reach 67 meters, a little more than 200 feet deep, the rock outside is covered
in a beautiful octocoral that only grows in the cooler water down here. We film it with
the sub's built in camera system.
I look up, and passing over the summit of Mount Everest is a whale shark!
The shark turns and makes another pass by the sub, so Avi drives the sub right alongside
the shark for a close up view!
Many times in my life I have exhausted myself trying to keep up with a whale shark. Doing
it in a submarine is almost too easy! But if we spook the shark, there is no question
it can get away from the sub. This sub is nowhere near as fast as a whale shark! Avi
does a beautiful job of following along behind the shark while Shmulik films.
Impressed by Avi's abilities driving the sub, I had to learn how it's done.
Explain these controls to me here.
There's a joystick here, which controls all the maneuvers of the sub. This is forward,
backwards, side, and up, and down, and then we can crab sideways with this, and then we
can decide how much power we want to give to the thrusters. And everything here has
to do with the lights, the motors, and the vital systems of the sub, like the communications,
and the scrubber. Over here are all the main breaker switches of the submarine, which control
all the power systems, the electronics, and there are some safety switches here while
these rockers control the pan and tilt, which is the lights. We can turn them around to
see.
Heading back to Mount Everest, we encounter a Galapagos shark passing by the sub at a
depth of about 200 feet. Even though we are now well beyond the limits of sport scuba
diving, all the fish still look like the fish I'm used to seeing on my dives.
When we reach the bottom of Mount Everest, we have arrived on a shelf at a depth of 300
feet. Avi and Shmulik are navigating using SONAR, which shows the shelf, the seamount,
and the drop-off, where we're heading!
Well...I'm at 300 feet, officially the deepest I've ever been, but what's really amazing
is, there's still light! It's dark, but it's not completely dark, and look at how much
marine life there is at 300 feet!
Even at 300 feet, we still see schools of hammerheads above in the blue.
As we sink past 400 feet, we come across a group of Jellynose fish aggregating in the
wall. Jellynose fish are only found in deep water, and very little is known about them.
I've certainly never seen one before!
They get the name "Jellynose" because they have a cartilaginous skeleton like sharks,
but they are not closely related to sharks. Virtually everything about these fish, including
the purpose of this gathering, is a complete mystery.
Nearby, a Goosefish. Although there are species of Goosefish that live in shallow water, this
one is only seen down deep.
It lies on the bottom—camouflaged--its huge mouth waiting for prey!
Nearby, a colony of tunicates, in the shape of a tube like a sponge. Crabs seem to be
picking it over for food, but who knows what's going on? The deep sea provides more questions
than answers.
In the dim light, a Mobula ray glides by the sub. The Mobula is basically a small manta,
and this species is frequently seen in shallow water. What it's doing down here, 500 feet
below the surface is anyone's guess.
I'm now at 218 meters, about 700 feet! From a distance, the bottom looks lifeless.
Closer inspection however, reveals tiny white cup corals. Who could imagine? Corals at 700
feet!
But then, while concentrating on tiny little corals, something swims into our lights!
A Ragged Tooth Shark!
The Ragged Tooth shark, also known as the Smalltooth Sand Tiger, is only occasionally
found in shallow water, but much more commonly associated with depths over 500 feet.
Here at almost a thousand feet, this shark is in its element!
Down here, the light is almost gone, but a pale blue glow comes from above.
And then, just as we pass 1000 feet, the deepest shark I've ever seen! A Prickly shark swims
towards the lights on the sub.
Prickly sharks like cold water, so they usually hang out down deep, but they have been seen
in shallow cold water in some places. I've certainly never seen one before.
The shark is intrigued by the lights on the sub and comes towards us.
All sharks have sandpapery skin due to their dermal denticals, but the ones on the Prickly
shark are particularly thorn-like, which is where this shark gets its name.
The shark circles the sub several times before vanishing into the darkness.
Soon it's time to head back to the surface, but along the way we stop again at Mount Everest
for one task to be done before we leave.
Shmulik has to use the mechanical arm on the sub to retrieve a remote temperature sensor.
Inside the sub, he manipulates the arm with a remote control.
The temperature sensor has been down here for 6 months recording water temperature data
for scientific research. Shmulik will use the arm to grab the sensor and bring it to
the surface to download the information it has recorded.
He lines up the jaws of the arm...and he has it!
Ooh, nice work!
Avi drives the sub back to the Argo underwater, we won't to be towed home. Besides, the water
at the surface is rough and it's nice and calm down here!
We slowly ascend right near the stern of the Argo.
Well, I made it back from the depths of the ocean! And I never even got wet!
And we can see that it has started to rain again, with raindrops appearing on the water
above.
With perfect accuracy, Avi has brought us right to the back of the ship.
We bob around a little while Avi gets the sub aligned with the sub bay in the Argo.
He will drive it right in, like putting a car in a garage.
Jose jumps aboard and helps guide the sub the last few feet. And then we're back.
The crew covers the dome to keep rain out when they open up the cockpit.
And then...I climb out.
Woo hoo! Yea! I'm back!
My experience in the submersible certainly ranked up there as one of the most fascinating
things I have ever done. And getting to see marine life far deeper than I can ever scuba
dive was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I can say for sure that while this might have
been my first trip in a submarine, I hope it's not my last, because I really want to
do this again someday. Who knows what we'll discover next time?