Exploring florida’s hidden underwater caves and vibrant coral Reefs

Meet Jonathan Bird, one of the world's top underwater nature cinematographers. Traveling the world on assignment for all the major networks, he is an Emmy award-winning authority on the underwater world. In freshwater or salt, reefs, wrecks or caves, Jonathan documents the world beneath the waves. Welcome to the Blue World. Drift diving is a type of diving where you jump into moving water and go with the flow. In the ocean, this usually means that a boat follows you and picks you up wherever you decide to surface. It's a lot of fun and super easy because you don't have to swim hard and you don't need to worry about getting back to where you started. Cave diving is almost never done this way because you can't surface except where you started. So cave divers usually try not to get involved in high current situations. But as with all things, there are exceptions. Cameraman Todd, Cameraman Zach and I have come to central Florida in search of a famous cave drift dive. We stop at our favorite dive shop to rent some scuba tanks and get air fills. Then it's off to Manatee Springs State Park, where they do have manatees. But that's not why we're here. We start with a quick tour of the area. Since Zach has done this dive before, he explains how it will work. Manatee Springs is a place where an underground river flows out of the ground and joins into the Suwannee River. So the State Park has a huge submerged cave system underneath it, emerging at both Manatee Spring and a spring called Catfish Hotel. Catfish Hotel is covered in duckweed and looks like a little pond. We take a walk into the woods to find Freedman's Sink. That does not look like something that's diveable. It looks like a puddle in the woods. It is a puddle in the woods, but it's a diveable puddle in the woods. Wow! Crazy! Where's the part you go in? Right there. Today we're going to do a cave drift dive, where we're going to go in here and we're going to come out downstream at the Catfish Hotel. I'm super excited but also a bit nervous as we start gearing up. Soon may the weatherman come to bring us tea and sugar and rum. Don't worry, I'll get a brush. Zach knows the way, so we let him lead. Of course, the minute we move, we kick up all kinds of sediment. Todd and I follow Zach down the hole and emerge into the cave, with strong current passing by. It's also filled with particulate matter. I was definitely expecting better visibility. Once we've gotten our buoyancy dialed in, we start swimming gently with the current. Fortunately the current is doing most of the work. Zach keeps his primary light on the guideline. In this visibility, we have to work extra hard not to lose sight of it. It's a very disconcerting feeling knowing that after a few minutes of drifting, we probably would not be able to get back to Freedman's Sink if we had to, against the current. Soon we have traveled 700 feet, which is the halfway point between Freedman's Sink and the next possible exit. In larger sections of the cave, the current gets slower and the pace feels a little more relaxed, but I still can't stop thinking about how far the next exit will be. In a smaller, low section, the water moves faster and we don't really even need to kick. Zach points out the line that will take us up to a small possible exit known as Sue's Spring. But since we are doing fine and have plenty of air, we will keep going towards the Catfish Hotel. Finally we reach a section of the cave that begins to angle upwards. We're approaching the end of the line. Finally we enter the cavern zone and we can see daylight. Catfish Hotel might be known for its large population of catfish, but we're not finding very many. The holes in the rocks are supposed to have catfish in them. I guess there is a vacancy at the hotel. I hunt around under a ledge and find a few hiding. Hunting for catfish is a good way to do a little decompression stop. Since the dive was almost 90 feet, I'll need some time to decompress before surfacing. Zach has found a little turtle hanging out. The surface of the spring is covered in algae and duckweed, which makes for a dramatic underwater view. I'm thinking that if I surface through all of this stuff, my gear will be covered in algae. We head over to the swim platform and I use my regulator to clear out a spot to surface. Man, that was a wild ride! That was fun! It goes against all my training, but it was fun! The drift from Freedman's Sink to Catfish Hotel is an exhilarating but extremely unusual cave dive. This practice goes against standard cave training and is only undertaken here because of the short distance, multiple exit points and long history. This is one of the only dives of its type in the world, and it's a thrill every cave diver should experience. It's another amazing place in the Blue World. Don't go away! Jonathan is about to explore three fishy shipwrecks in Florida. The Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach, Florida is one of the most famous muck dives in the world. But it's not the only dive in town. Just offshore lie fabulous coral reefs and wrecks to explore, and today we're going to check them out. Riviera Beach is located on the eastern shore of Florida, bathed in the warm, clear waters of the Gulf Stream. Our adventure begins at Pura Vida Divers. I show up first thing to check out the shop and sign my waiver. Then I'm off to the dive boat with dive master Andrea Whitaker. Down at the dock, Zach and I load our gear on the boat. Then we take a few minutes to set everything up before we depart. Soon we're on our way to one of the great dive sites just offshore. Andrea is not only a dive master, but a talented underwater photographer, so she knows where to take us for some good shots. Finally it's time to suit up. Andrea and I hit the water with our cameras ready. Zach is not far behind. We're diving a site called Governor's River Walk. It's three small shipwrecks with a chain leading the way from one to the next. Three wreck dives in one dive. On the first wreck, we find a Goliath grouper hiding inside. All the wrecks have tons of fish schooling around them. Andrea is leading the way, looking for great shots. The wrecks are covered in coral, so they have a lot of color if you have lights to make the color pop. Andrea grabs a shot of me and Zach. Next she trains her lens on a barracuda. There are sea fans and swim-throughs. And if she gets really desperate, there are always divers willing to model. We pass over a small reef on our way to the last wreck. This one is smaller, but it has a lot of color. Finally it's time to end the first dive. Andrea sends up an SMB, a surface marker buoy, or as most divers call it, a safety sausage. This allows the captain to keep track of us while we drift with the current doing our safety stop. That was great! We have a nice surface interval while Captain Scott moves the boat to another site. We switch tanks and then it's time to dive again. This site is a nice reef called Juno Ledge. It's a pretty popular site. There are overhangs and drop-offs filled with fish. You have to keep an eye peeled because sometimes interesting subjects conceal themselves with camouflage. But not this guy. A scorpionfish sits in a sponge like it's a couch. He looks pretty comfortable. And Andrea gets a great portrait. Andrea also points out a nurse shark swimming by. The shark makes a close pass but doesn't stick around. A lionfish is an invasive species in Florida, but it's still a beautiful fish to film. The long spines are quite venomous, so this is a fish you don't mess around with. We continue along the reef looking in the various cracks and holes for hidden subjects. I come across a pair of gray angelfish. Gray angelfish like to work in pairs, so you very rarely see just one. I also find a blue angelfish, which is common here on the reefs of Florida, but not very common in the rest of the Caribbean. We find a filefish, which swims with its pelvic and dorsal fins rather than its tail. The reef has some really nice healthy barrel sponges. A big overhang has a huge school of snapper. We make it down to about 80 feet, so it's not long before we need to head up. Once again, Andrea deploys the SMB. What a great dive! So many fish! It's hard to believe how much healthy marine life there is just a short distance from the Riviera Beach skyline. There are colorful wrecks, healthy reefs and a ton of fish less than a mile offshore. The east coast of Florida is an often underappreciated dive destination, and it just goes to show that there are amazing wonders to be seen all over the Blue World.