Today, Jonathan travels to Oman looking for
a rare and exotic shark. Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World. I have filmed sharks all over the world. Whale sharks in the Galapagos, Tiger sharks
in the Caribbean, White sharks in Mexico. Big sharks, little sharks, tropical sharks,
cold water sharks, bottom-dwelling sharks. I love sharks and shark behavior, and I’m
always looking for a new shark species to film. So, on our shark search, Cameraman Bill and
I are heading all the way to the middle east, to dive in the Sultanate of Oman. I’ve come all the way to Oman to film a
unique animal called the Zebra shark. Oman is a beautiful country with deserts and
mountains meeting the greenish-blue water of the Gulf of Oman, part of the western Indian
Ocean. The water here is tropical in temperature
but filled with plankton due to upwelling nutrients. As a result, the water is not as clear as
you might expect for such a tropical place, but absolutely filled with fish. Cameraman Bill and I arrive at the very fashionable
Civil Aviation Club just outside Oman’s capital of Muscat. We’ll be staying here for the week, right
on the ocean. And it’s really convenient because the dive
shop is located right on the property. As we discover at breakfast the first morning,
we are the only ones here, because it’s the middle of the summer. Here we are in our morning breakfast at the
Civil Aviation Club. We have the entire place to ourselves. We’re the only guests. Nobody shows up in July. Nobody. So, it’s 8 in the morning, in Oman, in July,
which is obviously the hot season. And ah, it’s over 100 degrees out and the
humidity is stifling. I head over to the dive shop and grab my gear
to load the boat. And it’s really easy because the boat is
on dry land! I’m experimenting with a new camera system—ultra
lightweight and travel-friendly. It kind of looks like an octopus though. Soon we’re on our way. It seems weird to be on the boat while they
put it in the water, but they have no dock here, so this is the best way. I don’t think the salt water is good for
the tractor. Once we are free of the boat trailer, the
captain fires up the engines and we’re on our way to the dive site. This area can be extremely windy, making the
sea conditions unsafe. So we are lucky that today it’s really calm. We make good time for the 20 kilometer run
out to the Daymaniyat Islands, one of the best places to dive in Oman. Daymaniyat is a small group of desert islands
surrounded by healthy reefs and protected by the Oman government as a nature reserve. I’m excited to get in the water and check
out what Oman has to offer. Well, it’s time to
go try to find a Zebra Shark! The water is hot near the surface, but it
quickly cools down as I sink below 30 feet. And it’s chock full of fish, like this big
school of Blackspot snapper. Due to upwelling there is plenty of cool,
nutrient-rich water here as I descend. This deeper layer is green with plankton,
and thick with fish. At times, the schools of fusilier block out
the sun! But’s the reefs that really catch my attention. While the underwater landscape is predominantly
hard coral, there are some magnificent colorful soft corals about. They have that classic tropical Indo-Pacific
look. And yet nearby there are bright blue gorgonians
that look like they were transplanted from temperate waters. There’s a species of crown-of-thorns sea
star I have never seen before. A big fat pincushion star. A pair of anemonefish frolicking in a magnificent
anemone that has fluorescing tentacles! Laced Moray eels seem to be living in every
hole in the reef. A nudibranch, basically a poisonous snail
without a shell, makes its way along the reef. A pair of tiny shrimp inhabit a branched anemone. A sea turtle is munching away on a soft layer
of coralimorphs that have encrusted the reef. She doesn’t seem to mind my camera one bit
as I move in for a close up. I might have stayed with this wonderfully
cooperative animal for the whole dive, except Bill calls me over to see something else. He has discovered a pair of cuttlefish. Cuttlefish are intelligent and curious. They often approach divers without fear for
a closer look. But this pair seems more like they are holding
their ground as we move in closer. It really seems like they might be up to something
that we just interrupted. With my camera barely more than a foot away,
the cuttlefish stay right in their spot over the reef. After a few minutes, they decide to trust
me and go back to what they were doing. And now I get it. The male is standing guard while the female
deposits her eggs in a safe place under some coral. This is a spectacular behavior I have never
before witnessed. The male keeps a close eye on me, but I guess
they have decided that Bill and I aren’t a threat. The egg-depositing continues in earnest, and
I feel truly honored that this pair of cuttlefish will allow us to get a glimpse into their
lives. We leave the cuttlefish to their efforts and
move on. As we swim out into a deeper, rubbly area,
we find our quarry: a Zebra shark resting on the bottom. But as we sneak in closer, the shark gets
spooked. We had an amazing dive, and we found a Zebra
shark, so we know they are around. Now we just need to find a cooperative one. The next morning we are up bright and early,
before it gets too hot. Back at the Daymaniyat Islands, we jump in
the water and head over to the area we saw the shark yesterday. Along the way I find some things to film. But then, I see a Zebra shark resting on the
bottom and approach slowly. As I get closer, I can see the distinct spots
that look like a Leopard pattern. In fact, in many places this is known as a
Leopard shark. If the Zebra shark looks a little familiar,
it’s probably because of the 5 ridges running the length of its body, which make it look
like a small Whale shark. Indeed they are related to each other. But instead of swimming in open water looking
for plankton, the Zebra shark rests on the bottom during the day and hunts for mollusks
and crustaceans at night. One thing I immediately notice about this
shark is that it appears to have only 4 gill slits. Given that all sharks have between 5 and 7
gill slits--with the vast majority having 5--something doesn’t seem right. So I sneak around the to the other side and
I can see the explanation. On Zebra sharks, the last two gill slits are
actually so close together that you can barely tell they aren’t a single gill slit. When a Zebra shark swims, you can see that
it has a really long, flexible tail. Most sharks don’t have a tail like this. My guess is that the long tail allows the
shark to swim backwards and wiggle out of the holes and crevices in the reef where it
hunts. Having finally found the Zebra shark, its
time head back to the boat, mission accomplished. That Zebra shark was amazing! What I couldn’t believe is how much it was
willing to tolerate me. I mean, I got right up close with my video
lights and I just settled down and I was filming and it didn’t even mind. It was just sitting there, totally chill—that’s
the most cooperative shark ever! After an exciting day filming Zebra sharks,
we head back to the Civil Aviation Club and enjoy a beautiful Omani sunset over the Indian
Ocean. And once again I realize how lucky I am to
be able to explore the far reaches of the Blue World.
