As expected, the dive on the Southampton was spectacular. It was nestled in a very shallow part of the reef about three miles north of Conception Island and it took a while to find, but with the help of the local amateur historian, who found the wreck last year, we finally got there. As soon as we got in the water we could see cannon littered about the seafloor like tic-tacs. We quickly began the survey and started measuring the cannon, they fit the measurements of the type of cannon that would have been on the Southampton. At the beginning of the dive, Lucy wasn’t totally convinced that this was the Southampton, but the cannon was a good sign. The wreck was so perfectly laid out that you could almost see how it would have sat on the sea floor.

The Southampton was a British frigate that ran aground in 1812. It was towing a captured American vessel, the Vixen, back to Jamaica and the charts of the day were not reliable so in the middle of the night, expecting the water to be clear, they ran aground and were unable to free the ship. This was during the War of 1812 when we were at war with Great Britain. The United States, less than 30 years old at the time, had been supplying the French during the Napoleonic Wars, which were also raging in Europe between France and Great Britain. Great Britain ordered the US to stop supplying thei French and the U.S. refused. Britain, the pre-eminent naval power of the day, started to attack American merchant ships and America declared war. There were few casualties during the three year conflict and even fewer real battles. It was a relatively tame war, and when peace was declared in 1815, both sides had gained nothing. Most of the war took place in the Great Lakes, which were sandwiched between Great Britain’s Canadian provinces and the US at the time, but some battles were fought elsewhere, like the Caribbean.

So there we were, diving on a wreck that was one of the few casualties of the war and it was one of the best wrecks I have ever seen. After surveying the cannon, we found the anchors, whose V shape was indicative of British anchors of the time. However, there was no chain, which meant it was a pre-1815 anchor (1815 is when they stared using chains) so that was also a good sign and Lucy was increasingly confident that this was indeed an English ship from the proper era; more good evidence that we were in the right place. The challenge with wrecks is that the wood rots and disappears rather quickly, so all that is left are the metal and glass parts, often encrusted with coral, and that isn’t much to go by. Next, we managed to find the stern (back) of the boat, identified by the various shards of glass window pains that would have adorned the captain’s cabin, always located at the stern. We also found bits of bottles, and just under the surface (protected from the rotting effects of water and animals), bits of small boxes and wood planks. When we measured the anchors to the stern, the overall size of the ship matched what we know about the Southampton. By this time, Lucy was pretty confident that we were diving on the right wreck.

It is amazing to see what a trained archeologist can divine from such scant evidence and as I looked through the same glass that the Captain of the Southampton would have gazed through two hundred years ago, I was struck by how fleeting the things we create really are.

We think that we are so important, that the things we build and buy are so permanent when in reality they are not. Two hundred years from now, when I am long gone, so too will many of the things that I see, touch and take for granted. I am not saying this to be depressing, but it’s true and I think that it reminds us to appreciate every day and take care of the world around us and each other, we should cherish it while we have it, precisely because it is so temporary.

Tomorrow, the last day onsite, is a dive for Tooni and Paul. I am doing the last few topside pickups so there won’t be much to report. The following two days we will spend in transit and packing up the gear.

It has been quite a fantastic expedition and has opened my eyes to just how important the Atlantic Ocean is, from the Gulf Stream to the fisheries to the people that rely on it, the Atlantic is another treasure that we take for granted all too often. I will never look at it the same way again.

We left Andros rather early this morning and were quickly engulfed in rough seas. However, call was blissfully late this morning so it wasn’t too bad and I was able to sleep in for the first time in almost two weeks.

Tomorrow is a dive on the Southampton, a wreck off a small eastern island of the Bahamas. It will be my first archeological dive with Lucy and I am really looking forward to it. Lucy is an excellent maritime archeologist and I know it will be fascinating to see such a spectacular piece of history through her eyes. I have been diving on wrecks before, I even had the honor of doing so with the legendary Teddy Tucker in Bermuda, but I have never done a dive with an archeologist, and the amateur historian in me can hardly wait.

Tomorrow is one of the dives I have been looking forward to and we will be some of the only people to have ever explored around it since it has only recently been discovered.

As for today, we have been doing some random filming here and there, including a little cooking scene. It is no secret that I love to cook, so the producers wanted to film a little segment of me whipping up a little lunch. Along with the chef onboard, Geoff, I went to work with help from Lucy. Today the menu was a homemade teriyaki sauce (one of my favorite things to make not to mention eat) with chicken for the meat eaters and tofu for the vegetarians and a side of rice and vegetable stir-fry. Teriyaki is a very simple thing to make which is perfect because the picky eater in me hates buying prepackaged sauces, I make everything from scratch when possible.

Essentially it is four ingredients, soy sauce, mirin (sweet Japanese cooking wine), garlic and ginger. It consists of equal parts of the hard ingredients and equal parts of the liquid ones. In other works, one cup of soy sauce mixes with one cup of mirin and one tablespoon of crushed garlic mixes with one tablespoon of ginger. Incidentally, the ratio is about one tablespoon hard stuff to one cup of soft. Dead easy really, mix it all up and you have some damn good teriyaki. You can add a little honey to it if you want to make it sweeter, or add some pineapple juice for a Hawaiian flare. Either way, it is damn good. Then I sliced up the tofu and chicken and sautéed a little fresh ginger in some local coconut oil before adding the teriyaki and the ingredients and viola, some delicious food if I do say so myself.

After lunch, we all went out onto the bow to marvel at the beauty of the Exumas (see pics). One of these days, I think a perfect vacation would be sailing through these remote and often deserted islands with a few friends, diving, swimming, sleeping, drinking, eating and well more…;) No cell phones, no email, just a week or two of bliss. Of course, I have to take a vacation first and when that will happen is anyone’s guess.

Today was a chance to get the team out to the black hole again and do some more filming. I can’t lie and say that anything overtly dangerous happened during the surface interval. I jumped in the water with my mask and snorkel to freedive down to the layer of toxic bacteria (which sounded sensible at the time though, now as I write it, not so much). I made it to about 50 feet and as I saw this dark hazy red glow emanate from the depths, felt the temperature start to rise (the bacteria layer is about 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit), I confess I realized this wasn’t the smartest idea and turned around. The idea of swimming through a dark, sulfuric layer of red bacteria at 60 feet, holding my breath, was a bit much for me and I decided to live to freedive another day.

By the time we made it back to the boat, the divers were just absolutely shattered and we all collapsed in the lounge waiting for dinner. A little food and some glasses of wine later, I put on the Nile. The last film that my father ever created, most of the team had never seen it, and many of the younger members had never even seen an original Cousteau Film, period. I was amazed at how enthralled everyone was, I think it is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen, but then again, I am only slightly biased. Everyone did agree that it was excellent and I was proud to be able to share a little bit of my heritage with a group of people that I have grown so fond of over the last 8 or 9 months.

Tomorrow is a transit day as we sail 17 hours from Andros Island to Conception Island in search of the wreck of the Southampton. It promises to be a rough crossing, so everyone is securing their gear and I am going to go join them.

Goodnight.

Today was another early start, we arrived at Andros just after sunrise. The crossing was very rough last night and few people got much sleep. Nonetheless, we were up and at ‘em early so we could get to the airfield to meet the helicopters that were waiting for us. The helicopters had to fly the crew and all our gear to a remote part of the island. The target was a small circular lake that was discovered only a decade ago. Since then, it has only been dived in once by a scientist who has been there only twice and yet it offers a wealth of scientific knowledge to be explored, and that was why we were visiting. Part of the reason it is so unexplored is it’s remote location. The only way to get to the site is by helicopter or seaplane and then the cost is so expensive that few people or expeditions can make it happen.

I love helicopters so science aside, I was just thrilled to be up in the air, I spend too much time in airplanes so I am never very impressed by them, but helicopters are awesome, the Bell Jet Ranger we were in (if you sit in the font with the bubble underneath you) truly feels like you are flying.

This was one of the most remote trips yet and we all definitely had a feeling of an Indiana Jones adventure; Oceans and the Search for the Black Hole or something like that. Lucy and I were on topside this morning for this adventure and it was Paul and Tooni that got a chance to get in the water and explore. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed but we didn’t have a choice and the show must go on, so there wasn’t too much grumbling as Lucy and I accepted our fate.

Essentially, scientists think that this black hole is what the oceans might have looked like several billion years ago when the world was a much less hospitable place. The oceans had very little life in them, mostly just bacteria and there was very little oxygen in the environment. This lake resembles that environment and it was our job to do several dives to take scientific readings to catch a glimpse of what was happening. This time Lucy and I were on the surface and Paul and Tooni were diving. The lake has about 60 feet of relatively fresh water and then there is a 3-foot thick layer of reddish bacteria that absorb all the remaining sunlight and heat the water up as a byproduct of their activity. Another byproduct is high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, a chemical more toxic than cyanide, so you can imagine we were all a little concerned about the effects this chemical on the divers.

Underneath the layer of bacteria is a salty layer of water that has very little, if any, oxygen in it and only contains bacteria that can feed off the sulfur created by the bacteria in the middle layer. On top of that, it is totally dark since the bacteria absorb all of the light. All in all, a very forbidding place and rather dangerous. Only one other person has ever been diving in the hole, so this was a truly pioneering dive.

By late afternoon, everyone was exhausted and we packed up the gear to head back to the boat and get some rest before another trip out to the site tomorrow for additional exploration.

Another transit day and a rather uneventful one at that. Now, normally everyone finds these days rather tedious, but the last few days have been so crazy that everyone was happy to have a day of rest…or sorts. I slept until about 9 or so and rose to the sound of a helicopter circling the boat. This morning was the aerial shoot, where a helicopter flies over the boat and films it sailing along. So Paul, Tooni, Lucy and I gathered on the bow to pose for the grand establishing shot. After about an hour of shooting from every conceivable angle, the helicopter was off and it was time to film random, what we call, ‘whittling’ shots; essentially short shots of each of us doing various things around the boat. Everything from washing clothes in a bucket, preparing our dive gear, reviewing charts, writing this blog, even playing poker, anything is fair game and helps to document what we do onboard in between formal expedition shoots. By the early afternoon, that was done and we all hunkered down to spend our time however we saw fit, either prepping gear (see pic), hanging out in the lounge (see pic), or planning the next few dives (see pic).

It was a good, quasi rest time, as tomorrow is going to be a hectic day, full of everything from helicopters to primordial toxic bacteria.
Stay tuned…

What a day! Today, believe it or not, was better than yesterday and that is a tall order. I started out the morning early, about 6AM, and headed out with our crew to a series of longlines that the researchers from the Bimini Biological Research Station laid out the evening before. We were told that they had caught a 5-foot tiger shark and we quickly jumped into a boat with our gear and headed out to the site. We wanted to minimize the amount of time that the shark was on the hook, in order to make sure that it wouldn’t get too stressed. Tiger Sharks are very tough and they usually do just fine on the line, even for extended periods of time.I got in the water with Scott on the camera and we slowly followed the line up from our boat to where the shark was hanging on the line. Sure enough, it was a beautiful 5-foot female Tiger Shark. Tiger Sharks are considered one of the most dangerous sharks in the world; they have highly serrated teeth and are widely known as opportunistic feeders that will eat almost anything including sea turtles, shell and all.

But this Tiger Shark was very calm and patient as the scientists took her measurements. We filmed from underneath as they keep the shark in the water while they “work her up”. When they let her go, we moved way back from her and gave her enough room to swim away without running into us.

Upon releasing the shark we got word that there was another shark on the line. Sure enough it turned out to be another Tiger Shark, but this time, a smaller 4 footer. That size is small enough to capture and take to a holding pen for tagging and observation (see photos). After we had released her into the pen we headed out to the dive site we had been at yesterday and continued testing the shark repellent. Yet again it proved quite effective and we were amazed at how quickly the repellent seemed to work. While it wasn’t 100%, there was definitely a reaction and most of the sharks left the area pretty quickly. Mission accomplished and we all agreed that the potential for this repellent was huge to help us protect, not people, but sharks. According to the international shark attack files, only one shark attack resulted in a fatality last year while we continued to slaughter tens of millions of sharks.

I have to give a shout out to the Bimini Biological Field Station. All of the staff and volunteers are outstanding and it is quite a unique operation that they run. They offer volunteers the opportunity to get in-depth experience in many aspects of shark research, as well as the workings of a remote biological field station, and the lab depends on volunteers to accomplish their research. Since 1990 it has hosted thousands of volunteers from all over the world. If you have an interest in marine biology and would like to volunteer, you can visit www.miami.edu/sharklab/volunteerinfo.html. In addition, I can’t ask you all enough to support their work. I know all too well that raising money for this kind of vital work is difficult. If you can support them and get involved with money or equipment, contact Sean Williams, Lab Manager at sean.g.williams@gmail.com, and remember, anyone visiting the island of Bimini that wishes to visit the lab for a tour can contact the Sharklab on VHF radio channel 88A (USA).

It’s late and it has been a very long and frustrating day. The weather finally died down as we had hoped but we couldn’t leave Nassau until early this morning so we spent the better part of the day in transit to Bimini instead of diving with sharks as we had planned. It is always difficult to stay cooped up on the boat when you want to be in the water making films. Days like this don’t entail a lot of work, as there isn’t much to film except for a few pickups and planning sessions but that means time creeps by as we spend most of the day killing time however we can.

Some read, some sleep, some fiddle with gear…me I confess, I spent several hours playing Texas Hold’em Poker with a few of the crew, Ian the photographer/hi def technician, John Chambers the dive safety tech from Northern Ireland and chef Geoff. I won, but it was barely enough to keep our minds off the frustration of sitting around. The one highlight of the day was getting to spend time with Paul and Tooni and the other crew members who joined us last night. It is so good to have the entire team together and we are all looking forward to tomorrow, as we are all heading off to film sharks.

Bimini is known for its concentration of sharks and we are all extremely excited about it. Tooni and I will be underwater surrounded (if it all goes well) by dozens of Caribbean reef, lemon, and blacktip sharks. I haven’t been diving with sharks in such abundance in several years; it is totally exhilarating to be surrounded by such majestic creatures and I can barely wait to get in the water. I have never seen anything so perfect as a shark; so finely tuned to their purpose as they glide through the water with such graceful ease. So many people think of sharks as these mindless killers, intent on targeting any human being they can get their jaws on. Unfortunately, the media keeps perpetuating this myth to sell papers and the mindless public keeps on buying it.

The truth is quite different as anyone who has been diving face to face with sharks can attest; they are a thoughtful and often skittish creature, whose role in the health of the oceans is misunderstood and terribly underestimated. Sharks have been here for over 100 million years and their future is in dire jeopardy thanks to us. Any chance to share that story with people is a chance to try and stem the tide of our ignorance and I welcome it. Not to mention that diving with sharks is just one of the most thrilling experiences one can have. Anyway, I’ll tone down the preaching and pick up the story tomorrow as it is late and we have a big day tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Well, as we feared, the weather was against us and we had to spend today holed up in Nassau Harbour. The wind and waves out on the water were up to 30 mph and 9 feet tall. This puts us back a day and really means that the rest of the shoot is going to be a scramble. Unfortunately, that means that we won’t have as much time with the sharks in Bimini. On top of that, it looks like another front will be coming through in the next four days or so which would be a total disaster. So, bottom line, all is not well on the Oceans front, at least from a weather perspective.

On the bright side, the crew is still optimistic that we can make it work and I think we can. It will just take a lot of juggling and some sacrifices but at least from tonight on we will all be together at full strength instead of split into two different groups. Paul, Tooni and the rest of the crew arrive in about an hour and we are all looking forward to it. Somehow the trip doesn’t feel complete without them.

Once they arrive, the expedition will wage on and we are all confident that, despite the challenges, this will be one of the best episodes yet ,if for no other reason than that the story is so interesting. The Atlantic Ocean is an incredible system bordered by both the Arctic and the Antarctic and containing a rich tropical middle section. It is home to the Gulf Stream, which drives so much of the climate of North America and Europe and yet, we seem to take it for granted. The Atlantic Ocean is the poor stepchild of the oceans because it is, for many of us, at our doorstep. We tend to think of the Pacific or Indian Oceans or even the Great Southern Ocean as exotic. But the Atlantic is an incredibly diverse place that I am looking forward to rediscovering.

Tomorrow we are off to Bimini and if we are lucky, some incredible shark infested adventures.

Well, the storms continued today and we are all getting increasingly worried. Early morning we gathered at the stern and assessed the weather and the plan. We had just about agreed to get in the water when the captain informed us that the weather was getting worse and we would have to move. So we called a local boating shop and got them to lead us to a shallow area nearer shore from which we could base the rest of the days work. After lunch, we managed to get a small break in the weather and Lucy and I quickly donned our gear and got in the water to do some final pickups of Lionfish.

Unfortunately, we found them quite easily and managed to get several more shots of the invaders. We also had a very cool new piece of equipment to play with; a 360 degree camera. It is essentially a dome covered in small camera lenses which all record simultaneously and then a computer stitches the images together so that we get a full 360 degree video image. We took it down on our dive and placed it next to a few lionfish along the reef. We left the camera there for quite a while to try and see if we could catch a glimpse of more natural behavior and get insight into why they are doing so well in their new habitat.

The footage will be very interesting to review later but our filming session was cut short because of the weather, so we won’t have as much as we had hoped. By the late afternoon we had to gather all the equipment and load it back onboard the main boat and head inside to try and make contingency plans for the weather. Tomorrow will likely be a total wash and everyone is worried about the rest of the shoot being thrown off irretrievably. There are so many incredible stories and missing any days at all will mean we have to sacrifice something. Tomorrow evening we will be meeting up with the rest of the crew, which we are all looking forward to and then, if the weather passes, we will head off to Bimini to film sharks and the Gulf Stream.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Today was an early one, the boat left Nassau Harbour at about 4:30AM and the roar of the engines promptly woke us all up. Then, just as I had started to fall back asleep, we hit the deep rough water off of Nassau and it got nasty, seas were over 6-8 feet and very choppy, tossing the boat back and forth. My cabin is on the top deck and by about 5 o’clock it was all I could do to hold on and stay in my bunk. By 6AM the boat had made it around to the calmer southern side of the island and I was able to get back to sleep for about 30 minutes before getting up and preparing for the first dive of the day.

Today was the first day of filming Lionfish a species of fish that, while beautiful, is invasive here in the Atlantic Ocean. They are native to the Pacific and Indian Ocean, but since they were introduced into the Atlantic, they have spread throughout the northern Caribbean and Southern United States. Since they were first sighted off the coast of South Florida in the late 90’s Lionfish have since spread from Puerto Rico to New York and can be found throughout many parts of the Bahamas. No one is quite sure how they got here, but whether it was coastal aquariums flooded during Hurricane Andrew, or amateur aquarists releasing them when they could no longer care for the notoriously finicky fish, one thing is for sure, their rapid spread is another environmental catastrophe perpetrated by careless human beings.

Loss of biodiversity is one of the most serious environmental crises facing this planet and invasive species are a major cause of that loss. As a new species invades an eco-system where it does not belong it throws the balance of that eco-system into a disastrous tailspin. Often times, invasive species face few predators and those that are successful wreak havoc on the food chain disrupting the creatures both above them and below. Who cares you might ask? Well, for you skeptics out there, many of the species that they affect are commercially important and critical to the health of coastal economies. Invasive species is a serious matter that deserves our full attention, but it barely rates (like many ocean issues) a blip on our collective social radar.

I have to say that I was not looking forward to seeing them, hoping beyond hope that somehow it wasn’t true, but within a few minutes of our first dive we had indeed found them hiding amongst the craggy overhangs of a small coral outcropping. Lionfish are prized by aquarists because of their beautiful flowing fins and tiger like stripes. They are voracious predators that have almost no fear. I have been diving many times with Lionfish in the Pacific but seeing them in the Atlantic was like seeing a rhinoceros on the plains of North America, it was just plain wrong. Their mesmerizing fins tipped with deadly venomous spines were not enough to distract us from the fact that their presence is a disturbing reminder of the terrible arrogance, carelessness and myopia of humankind.

After the dives, we met up with two scientists researching the Lionfish population in the Bahamas and dissected several specimens that they had captured. The research that is going on is attempting to determine what they are eating, how fast and large they are growing and if there is anything at all we can do to stem their domination. Unfortunately, there seems to be little we can do but watch as they continue to take over and wreak havoc. The only hope is that perhaps we might learn something for the next time this kind of terrible environmental tragedy occurs again.

On top of this gloomy news, we are facing increasingly bad weather and it looks like we may only have tomorrow morning to film a few more scenes before we are chased ashore by the storm. Everyone is really worried, as the forecast is for increasingly bad weather that may prevent us from making it north to meet Paul and Tooni in Abaco and then heading to Bimini to film the Gulf Stream and Sharks. These are two critical stories and if this weather doesn’t break, the entire success of this expedition is in doubt.