Shipwreck Reef | What Sam Sees

hey I'm Sam and I'm a certified scuba diver who loves the ocean because it's filled with all kinds of amazing creatures both big and small it's such a magical place when I get to explore this underwater world it's always an adventure [Music] today I'm at elbow reef in the Florida Keys meeting up with two experts from NOAA the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration I'll be going on a dive with John catchin a go a unit diving supervisor and Laura J Grove a research fishery biologist elbow Reef is a popular dive spot here in the keys it has some beautiful reef systems that have formed on some very old shipwrecks these reefs are home to all kinds of marine life here we go [Music] elbow reef is commonly called referee I see why I'm holding on to a mooring buoy line that starts at the surface and anchors the boat without creating damage to the reef habitat it's pretty quiet down here considering pool race create homes for about nine million species look a little drum fish swimming in and out of the coral and a school of tiny mangrove fish playing Follow the Leader there's a different species at every turn this starfish is about the size of my hand and this is a basket starfish it's a bit smaller and has twisting tentacles with tiny hooks to catch prey really amazing hiding behind those rocks is a yellow stingray let's get a closer look too late echoes let's get up close to the coral these buds are one of the tiniest architects of the reef coral polyps coral polyps are super small organisms that attach themselves to rocks on the seafloor and divide into thousands of clones to create colonies that become reefs this shipwrecks rusted remains are buried under vegetation and coral formations it's the perfect reef habitat you can see some parts are still intact like the bow and decks these shipwrecks have been grounded since the late 19th and 20th centuries there are so many awesome species in maritime history living in this reef time to dry off and learn more can you tell me a little bit about what you guys do as your jobs I am a NOAA Corps officer I work with a maritime heritage group map shipwrecks and I'm also the unit diving supervisor so I monitor all diving activities to be the Florida Keys and ensure everything is safe is following Noah policies and standards so how often you dive on a weekly basis any day that it's nice basically it's not blowing 15 or more I'm out on the water this is my office most days wow that's pretty cool office how about you Jay I am a research fishery biologist so I am a scientist and I do a lot of work with the National coral reef monitoring program so I am down there doing assessments of reef fish so now they're talking with a fish stick measuring fish and recording information on fish and coral all throughout the Florida Keys on drag or tunas and the US Caribbean that's super neat Jay has the awesome job of naming any new unknown species she discovers now that's pretty cool so we're here at elbow reef and is this reef actually shaped like an elbow the chart is Florida right yeah here's a reef line every kind of just felt like an elbow here so curved whatever reason has attracted several shipwrecks of ski ships over the years I would say that shipwreck is a ship that has gone aground and sank this team you didn't go around but something caused it the tape on water and sink it was not deliberately sunk there is an artificial reef people decided we are going to clean this up and try to remove all harmful chemicals and substance and deliberately sink it okay old subway cars naval ships and even tires have been sunk to create artificial reefs why did he do that a lot of it has to do with tourism tourism diving artificial reefs make great fish habitat they're just a great spot for everybody to visit one of the most popular artificial reef sites in Florida is the Duane an old military ship that was intentionally sunk in 1987 these habitats are beautiful but can be very damaging to these sensitive environmental areas biologists generally prefer that these artificial reefs remain as natural as possible when did those shipwrecks eat so the Acorn went down 1885 it was a hundred and sixty-seven feet yeah based off of the wrecks that we saw on the reef how can you tell those fully established that's a great question and it's because the natural reef onto this ship right you didn't see a lot of change right you didn't see how to change in the structure you saw some of the same corals the same fish but it was a seamless transition and sometimes you would almost have to look down to say am i over the ship yeah that's hard to tell so what are some of the creatures that we saw down there Jay we thought - tons of creatures on the side we saw two different stingrays right absolutely you saw southern Syria and a yellow stingray the yellow stingrays are particularly cute and he turns pretty fast yeah I wasn't trying to yeah and then we saw a really cool fish that had a long snout and blue polka dots yes that was a scroll filefish that'd be awesome thanks guys for taking me out on this dive coral reef systems provide food and shelter to all kinds of species [Music] reapz also play a very important role in keeping us safe acting as a barrier to protect our shorelines from damaging waves storms and what [Music] see you next time on what fancies [Music]

Channel: National Geographic Kids

Views: 98,096

Rating: 4.7961783 out of 5

Keywords: what sam sees, scuba diver, scuba diving, national geographic kids, nat geo kids, kids, kid, for kids, national geographic, nat geo, animals, making stuff, educational, Shipwreck, Reef, Sam, dives, Sam dives deep, discover Shipwreck Reef, artificial reef system, habitat, why the reef exists, What Sam Sees, Jump into the water, scuba diver Sam, amazing world, underwater animals, ocean adventures, PLQlnTldJs0ZQHiJtBZwH91UMHdXPB3elF, PLQlnTldJs0ZR56MScVzlbeucr3brcHb-e

Id: 3VptlkY9lT8

Length: 8min 15sec (495 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 11 2018