Diving shipwrecks and aquariums - Exploring lake champlain and denver s underwater Worlds

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. I'm heading to beautiful Burlington, Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain. The Zax and I, along with our new assistant diver Annalise, are going to explore some deep shipwrecks. Lake Champlain is located on the border between Vermont and New York State. We already did some really cool dives on the historic canal schooners, which were used to transport materials to and from New York City. These wrecks were covered in marine life and shallow enough to have a fair amount of natural light. But today we're going deeper. Our adventure begins at Waterfront Diving Center in Burlington with our guide Sheila Cooley. It's raining outside, but we don't care. We're gonna get wet anyway. Since we're diving on the deeper side, we're using a special breathing mixture called Nitrox, which must be analyzed before the dive. We suit up and take a walk over to the marina to load the boat. Captain Larry has his funky landing craft dive boat ready to go. And Sheila's ready too. It might be rainy, but there's no wind. It's nice and calm. Perfect dive day. Soon we arrive at the mooring ball for the Lavallee tugboat. The Lavallee was a steam-powered tugboat operating in the early 1900s on the lake. It sank in 1931 and vanished for 65 years. Since the wreck is deep, we have limited time to work, so we split into two teams. We're sending the advanced team down with the lights to set them up so they're ready to go when we get down there. Cameraman Zach and I follow about five minutes later. We follow the mooring line into the cold darkness of 100 feet. The surface is over 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but it's only 45 down here. Lavallee is part of the Lake Champlain Underwater Historic Preserve, so we cannot go inside the shipwreck. The Lavallee sank in 1931, but due to the lack of detailed records on the sinking and its depth, the wreck was not found until 1996. But the cold water down here has preserved her well. There are almost no zebra mussels on the wooden hull. The helm is in pretty good shape, but the wheelhouse that it was in has been blown clean off, either by air pressure as the ship sank or by an explosion. As we head towards the stern, we peek inside the doorways without going inside. This looks like a bunk room. Further back we see the steam engine. This is one of the very few steamboat wrecks in Lake Champlain that still has the engine aboard. On top of the wreck, part of the smokestack from the engine. The rest of it can be found in the mud next to the wreck. There's a huge cleat for tying up other boats to be tugged. And down on the bottom, the prop and rudder, half buried in muck. As I swim back towards the bow, I'm struck by the lonely desolation of this historic ghost of the abyss. For nearly a hundred years, she has quietly rested peacefully in this cold darkness. We can only spend a short time here before no decompression limits force us to ascend. We're grateful for the return of light and warmth as we make our way to the surface. I want to talk about some spooky, Scooby-Doo stuff right there. That was like the spookiest time I ever did. The next day, the sun has returned and we're heading out to a wreck that we know nothing about. Captain Larry found this wreck, and he's the only one who knows where it is. There's no mooring on it, so we have to place our own marker. When Larry hits the right location on his GPS, Sheila throws the weight, and with any luck it will land on the wreck. Hopefully we bullseye the wreck. And there's no way to know without going down to look. We drop down through the thermocline into the cold water below. And wouldn't you know it, the marker landed right smack dab in the middle of the wreck. Sheila leads the way. All we know about this wreck is that it's a wooden barge that caught fire and sank. We don't know the name of the barge or the year it sank. Since it's not part of the historical preserve, we can swim inside the wreckage and have a look around. We need to be really careful because the visibility is not good at all. Timbers inside the wreck look pretty good. But the fire really did a number on the deck planks. The evidence of the fire is everywhere in the charred remains. The wreck is strung with fishing line from snagged hooks, which is how the wreck was discovered. A motorcycle tire was used as a bumper. And the hull looks solid. The darkness, depth and cold water combined with murky visibility make this wreck super spooky. And after half an hour, we must depart. We do a short decompression stop for safety before we ascend to the surface. Lake Champlain has a rich maritime history, dating back to the 1600s, with wrecks of all ages. Some of which have been documented, while others remain a mystery. No matter where our adventures take us, we always find something fascinating in the Blue World. I'm fortunate to have visited some of the best dive sites on Earth. Places like Indonesia, the Galapagos, the Caribbean, and even Antarctica. Today I'm adding another special place to that list—Denver, Colorado. No seriously, Zach of All Trades and I are visiting the incredible downtown aquarium in Denver to see their super cool exhibits. Denver is pretty far from the nearest ocean, but I'm pretty sure we're going to have some amazing dives today. I meet up with Wendy Murray, the dive operations manager at the aquarium. Hello! Hey Wendy! Welcome to the Denver Downtown Aquarium! Thanks for having me! We start our day with a tour of the aquarium, and we have the place to ourselves because they are not open to the public for another two hours. Our journey begins in the North America exhibit where we meet an alligator snapping turtle. So we do have an alligator snapping turtle. We're guessing he's about 96. At 96 years old, he's one of the oldest known snapping turtles, and we have perfect timing as they're about to feed him. Oh he sees it now. He sees it now. He's so cool. I love him. He gets his shell scrubbed occasionally just to get some of that algae off. He's got buoyancy issues. He needs a BC. There he goes. The weird thing is, they haven't named him. They have a number of exhibits containing freshwater fish of North America like trout, salmon, and even sturgeon. And a parrot. This is Molly. Hi Molly! She is very verbal. Molly is very verbal. Molly's daily exercise regimen involves climbing a rope. All right, so there she goes. She's going to climb up that rope up to Ryan, our mammals curator. So again, this is just utilizing her muscles, some conditioning. Soon we arrive at the rainforest exhibit where they have lots of exotic tropical fish, like the archerfish. So the archerfish, have you seen an archerfish? Oh no! Okay, they're really cool. So Lori's going to show you what to do and then you're going to do it after. So they're going to spit. What the heck? Oh wow! The archerfish has learned how to catch food by shooting a jet of water at bugs above the surface. They have incredible aim. The aquarium staff keep them sharp by letting them shoot crickets out of their hands. That's amazing! They have really good aim. We pass some other great exhibits, but I'm looking for something big enough to swim in. Touch pool. You can't swim in this one. But you can touch. Hey guys, what's up? Hello, hello, hello. You're so squishy. Wow. Oh, she's going to feed the Southerns if you want to. Oh, let's check it out. Wow, the Southerns get some pretty big food. It's like a half a mackerel. Do you want to feed the cow nose? Sure. Okay, give me two little fingers. You got to hold it in your knuckles. Yep. All right. This touch tank exhibit allows people to get up close and personal with cow-nosed rays and Southern stingrays. Good grief, wow! Okay, just like that. All right, so we're just going to go like this, a little bit of shrimp. All right, dinner is served. There you go, there you go, you got it. Okay, here we go, here we go. Oh, you got it. All right, almost got my watch too. So our final large exhibit, this is the largest one that we have, and it is our shipwreck exhibit. It's filled with huge fish, sharks, and one of my favorite creatures. Look at the sawfish! They're so big! Sawfish are so rare that I've never seen one in the wild. Unfortunately, Wendy says only the staff usually gets to dive in this exhibit, so no sawfish for me. Fortunately, we can dive in the Under the Sea exhibit, so we head upstairs and go behind the scenes to gear up. These exhibits have tropical fish, so the water is warm. When we enter the exhibit, I can't believe how many fish there are! Wendy takes us on a tour, and now that the aquarium is open for the day, we have an audience. A green moray is used to the camera and doesn't mind my attention at all. A nurse shark poses for a few minutes. Nearby, another animal I've never seen in the wild. A guitarfish, which is either an elongated stingray or a flattened shark, depending on your point of view. They're kind of halfway between sharks and stingrays, and they don't mind hanging out with the stingrays. I make my way to the other side of the exhibit and find two different species of morays hanging out behind a sign. Nearby, a leopard whip ray chills out. This is a somewhat uncommon species of stingray, known for its long whip-like tail. And of course it has a leopard skin pattern. This male is obviously used to people because he doesn't mind me at all. I can go right in for an eyeball close-up. That was an amazing dive with so many cool things to see. I loved it! After the dive, Wendy takes us over to the top of the shipwreck exhibit, which is much larger. A sandbar shark buzzes right by the swim entry point. And that's when she tells us that she got permission for us to go in, so we can see the sawfish! This exhibit has a sneaky entry corridor that allows the staff to enter without disturbing the marine life. We sneak around and find a nice spot to settle down and watch the action. A sand tiger shark comes over to investigate. And right in front of me, a huge sawfish! Sawfish are essentially rays. Their gills reside underneath their head just like a stingray, but they are long and skinny like a shark, so they are actually a lot like a guitarfish. But their distinguishing feature is the long rostrum with teeth arranged in a saw pattern. The sawfish swings its saw back and forth in the sand to catch fish. It's a super effective hunting technique. We follow Wendy around the back of the exhibit to the other side. Over here we have a good view of the whole place. A curious Napoleon wrasse comes over for a look. The sand tiger sharks are curious too. Lots of aquariums have sand tigers because they are the perfect shark. They look mean and toothy, but they are actually very mellow and they won't eat the other fish in the exhibit as long as they are kept well fed. The zebra shark gets its name because in the juvenile phase it has stripes. But as the shark gets older, the stripes turn into spots. The sawfish normally just lay on the bottom, but every once in a while they like to swim around for a look. Soon it's time to leave, so Wendy takes us back to the entrance. The Downtown Aquarium in Denver is truly one of my favorite aquariums in the world. They have such a diverse collection of incredible aquatic life to see. And it's the best ocean dive in the world, at more than 5,000 feet above sea level. Denver might be almost 1,000 miles from the ocean, but that doesn't mean you can't get a great glimpse into life in the Blue World.