Season Four

At a remote atoll in the Maldives, Manta rays gather in large numbers for just a few weeks each year to feed on plankton that accumulates in a small lagoon. Will Jonathan manage to time his visit right and find the mantas?

In this exciting adventure, Jonathan travels to Manuk, a tiny, uninhabited volcanic island several hundred miles from the nearest populated island in Indonesia, on a mission to discover why the waters of this remote place are teeming with thousands of venomous sea snakes!

Jonathan travels to Mexico for an up close encounter with Bull sharks, infamous for the fact that they are known to be the most dangerous species of shark to humans. He gets to try a chain mail anti-shark suit, and meets a biologist who is studying the sharks to learn more about their population and habits.

At NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, astronauts train for space walking underwater, in a giant pool about half the size of a football field. Jonathan gets a rare and fascinating look into this high-tech diving as he ventures underwater with astronauts.

Hawaiian Monk seals are a critically endangered group of warm water seals that are only found in the Hawaiian archipelago. Only about 1,200 of the animals remain. Jonathan sets course for the Forbidden Island of Ni'ihau to meet some of these reclusive animals, and gets a fascinating insight into the lonely world of the Monk seal.

Jonathan travels to Bonaire to meet an exceptional group of injured military veterans who are learning to scuba dive as a form of physical therapy.

Jonathan joins a group of volunteer divers as part of an international event called the Great Annual Fish Count to take a census of marine life across the globe. His mission: dive the chilly waters of Massachusetts with a pencil...and count fish!

In the Florida Keys, several ships have been sunk intentionally as artificial reefs to provide habitat for fish and entertainment for scuba divers. Jonathan visits three wrecks of different ages to see how these wrecks turn into reefs and what it means to the local marine life.

Jonathan travels to the island of Bonaire to take a course in freediving from Karol Meyer, a world-champion freediver. Soon he learns how to hold his breath and dive—with no scuba tank!

Jonathan travels to upstate New York to learn how biologists are working to save the sturgeon in the St. Lawrence river. During a dive he films an amazing spectacle that has never been recorded before--Lake Sturgeon spawning!

Jonathan visits an underwater farm in Key Largo where they grow coral! He joins the staff of Coral Restoration Foundation in helping to transplant and propagate staghorn coral which has become threatened in the keys.

At the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, Jonathan gets up close and personal with Beluga whales as he learns what its like to train and take care of these thousand pound marine mammals.

Tucked away in the forest on Andros Island in the Bahamas is a small circular pond. But this particular pond is actually a Blue Hole, over 400 feet deep. Jonathan explores the depths of this Blue Hole, first explored by legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, and finds some fascinating biological processes going on way down deep.

Off the Big Island of Hawaii, Jonathan cavorts with a pod of playful Spinner dolphins and learns how they hunt at night and sleep during the day by shutting off half their brains at a time!

Jonathan visits Aquarius Reef Base--the world's only undersea lab where scientists live in saturation for days or weeks at a time, studying the ocean. It's an amazing combination of science fiction and undersea adventure!

In this fascinating biology segment, Jonathan explores the world of skates and rays. From the plankton-eating Manta ray to the Electric Torpedo ray, these animals have a variety of surprising adaptations for survival in the ocean.

In a remote part of Andros Island in the Bahamas, a deep crack in the ground leads into a beautiful and stunning underwater cave system. Jonathan joins a veteran cave explorer to plumb the crystal clear water in the depths of Stargate Blue Hole.

A sponge might not look like much, but these simple animals with no brain or ability to move have lived on Earth for hundreds of millions of years. They can hunt prey and spawn, and Jonathan demonstrates how in this fascinating segment about the biology of sponges!

At the remote, lush, uninhabited Cocos Island, 300 miles off the coast of Costa Rica, Jonathan witnesses a nightly hunting ritual. Dozens of Whitetip Reef sharks join together into roving gangs to hunt fish in the reef. But sometimes the fish are pretty good at getting away.

Off the coast of southern California, Catalina Island is known as one the greatest places in the world to see Kelp Forests. Jonathan travels to Catalina Island to explore these fantastic undersea forests of plants and meets the animals that live there, including a Torpedo ray that attacks his camera!

The St. Lawrence river connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes and as such has been a major shipping channel for hundreds of years. The bottom of the river is littered with the remains of ships that ran aground or were lost during storms. Jonathan explores some of the wrecks and gets a unique look into history.

In this fascinating new adventure, Jonathan joins a team of underwater archaeologists who are excavating the sunken wreck of Blackbeard's pirate ship the "Queen Anne's Revenge" off the coast of North Carolina near Beaufort. He assists underwater and then tours the lab where artifacts are conserved for display at the museum.

At night off the Kona coast, divers use lights to attract vast clouds of plankton, which in turn attract dozens of Manta rays to feed on the plankton. Jonathan travels to Hawaii to meet these Manta rays, including one particular animal named Lefty who has been coming to this site since 1979.

Jonathan travels to the St. Lawrence river in upstate New York and the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean to investigate invasive species like zebra mussels and lionfish and how they affect the ecosystems into which they have been introduced.

In this exciting Blue World adventure, Jonathan Bird hitches a ride on a submarine down to 1,000 feet at Cocos Island, Costa Rica, where he finds strange fish and even sharks!