Jonathan heads down to Cancun in Mexico on an expedition to film one of the world’s fastest fish—the sailfish! He gets in the water with a school of sailfish…
Jonathan heads down to Cancun in Mexico on an expedition to film one of the world’s fastest fish—the sailfish! He gets in the water with a school of sailfish zooming around hunting sardines. In addition to having huge dorsal fins giving them their name, the sailfish also have long pointy bills like spears they use to catch their prey. Jonathan dodges the bills while filming the action!
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Have you ever wondered why a sailfish has a sail and a pointy bill? Well I have!
And to find out, I have traveled down to Cancun, Mexico to see if I can get up close to a sailfish in the wild.
My guide is Jorge Loria from Phantom Divers who put this trip together for me.
We arrive at Solo Buceo, the dive shop in Cancun that is running the expedition.
Interaction with sailfish is best done without scuba gear, so I’ll just be using a mask, fins and snorkel.
The protection of the marina belies the ocean conditions. A look at the trees shows the wind, and just outside the harbor, the waves break. Yikes!
With all our gear loaded, we push off the dock and head out to sea.
Alberto, the mastermind of this expedition is on the phone, checking to see if any fishermen have seen the sailfish this morning.
Our captain pushes up the throttles for a long run out to sea. It will be at least two hours to get anywhere near sailfish territory.
OK guys, we’re going to navigate a couple hours north of Contoy and we’re going to be looking for the birds eating the sardines, and therefore the sailfish are there so it’s going to be a two and a half hour ride. Everybody’s got mask and fins?
Our plan is to look for birds.
Believe it or not, to find sailfish, we need to find some birds flying around. That’s because sailfish love to eat sardines, little silvery fish about this big. But to find the sardines, we need to find some birds that are also hunting the sardines.
Everyone on the boat keeps an eye open as we drive around the open sea, hoping for a glimpse of birds on the horizon.
And after a few hours, we find the birds. Unfortunately, some fishermen saw them too.
Well, we’re like 20 miles out and we found birds flying all over the place, feeding on a bait ball, an I think there are some sailfish. We’re going to jump in and see if we can find them.
We pull up to the fish under the birds and it’s time for us to jump in! Jorge got in first and he has his hand up to tell us where the sailfish are.
My first glimpse under the water reveals just blue and some bubbles. But then a sailfish comes racing out of the distance!
The sardines are packed into a tight school, sometimes called a bait ball. They are trying to protect themselves against the sailfish by staying close to each other.
But the sailfish are chasing them and attacking from all sides. They pin the sardines against the surface so they can’t get away!
The sardines often swim close to me for protection. I’m starting to get worried about those sharp bills on the front of the sailfish!
These beautiful fish are among the fastest animals in the sea. They can swim 60 miles per hour! That’s as fast as a car on the highway!
A sailfish uses its bill like a sword to slash through the baitball and stun a sardine. Then it can gobble the fish down.
Sometimes the sailfish even skewer sardines on the end of their bills. Whoa! Did you see that? Watch it again in slow motion!
Here comes a sailfish from the left and it nails a sardine right in front of the camera! Even in slow motion it’s fast. Watch it even slower. Boom! Right there! Talk about good aim!
The action is incredibly fast-paced and tiring. I have to keep up with the action, which keeps moving. My legs are getting tired. Eventually, I can’t keep up with the baitball and the action drifts too far away.
The boat comes and picks me up. I’ll get a quick rest, then they will drop me back in close to the fish.
A few minutes later, I’m ready to go again.
I get my bearings and then I’m back into the sailfish.
You can see in this shot that when a sailfish swims, it folds its dorsal fin down to reduce drag.
But then, BOOM it pops the dorsal fin up like a sail. Did you see that? Watch it again in slow motion. There! We can only guess why the sailfish has such a large sail-like dorsal fin, but it appears they use the sail to frighten the sardines by surprising them, or possibly to look larger when they are herding the fish.
The sailfish work together to keep the sardines from escaping below and one by one, they pick off each and every sardine, until the entire baitball is gone.
Sailfish! | JONATHAN BIRD’S BLUE WORLD
Jonathan heads down to Cancun in Mexico on an expedition to film one of the world’s fastest fish—the sailfish! He gets in the water with a school of sailfish…
Description
Jonathan heads down to Cancun in Mexico on an expedition to film one of the world’s fastest fish—the sailfish! He gets in the water with a school of sailfish zooming around hunting sardines. In addition to having huge dorsal fins giving them their name, the sailfish also have long pointy bills like spears they use to catch their prey. Jonathan dodges the bills while filming the action!
**********************************************************************
If you like Jonathan Bird’s Blue World, don’t forget to subscribe!
You can join us on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/BlueWorldTV
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**********************************************************************
Have you ever wondered why a sailfish has a sail and a pointy bill? Well I have!
And to find out, I have traveled down to Cancun, Mexico to see if I can get up close to a sailfish in the wild.
My guide is Jorge Loria from Phantom Divers who put this trip together for me.
We arrive at Solo Buceo, the dive shop in Cancun that is running the expedition.
Interaction with sailfish is best done without scuba gear, so I’ll just be using a mask, fins and snorkel.
The protection of the marina belies the ocean conditions. A look at the trees shows the wind, and just outside the harbor, the waves break. Yikes!
With all our gear loaded, we push off the dock and head out to sea.
Alberto, the mastermind of this expedition is on the phone, checking to see if any fishermen have seen the sailfish this morning.
Our captain pushes up the throttles for a long run out to sea. It will be at least two hours to get anywhere near sailfish territory.
OK guys, we’re going to navigate a couple hours north of Contoy and we’re going to be looking for the birds eating the sardines, and therefore the sailfish are there so it’s going to be a two and a half hour ride. Everybody’s got mask and fins?
Our plan is to look for birds.
Believe it or not, to find sailfish, we need to find some birds flying around. That’s because sailfish love to eat sardines, little silvery fish about this big. But to find the sardines, we need to find some birds that are also hunting the sardines.
Everyone on the boat keeps an eye open as we drive around the open sea, hoping for a glimpse of birds on the horizon.
And after a few hours, we find the birds. Unfortunately, some fishermen saw them too.
Well, we’re like 20 miles out and we found birds flying all over the place, feeding on a bait ball, an I think there are some sailfish. We’re going to jump in and see if we can find them.
We pull up to the fish under the birds and it’s time for us to jump in! Jorge got in first and he has his hand up to tell us where the sailfish are.
My first glimpse under the water reveals just blue and some bubbles. But then a sailfish comes racing out of the distance!
The sardines are packed into a tight school, sometimes called a bait ball. They are trying to protect themselves against the sailfish by staying close to each other.
But the sailfish are chasing them and attacking from all sides. They pin the sardines against the surface so they can’t get away!
The sardines often swim close to me for protection. I’m starting to get worried about those sharp bills on the front of the sailfish!
These beautiful fish are among the fastest animals in the sea. They can swim 60 miles per hour! That’s as fast as a car on the highway!
A sailfish uses its bill like a sword to slash through the baitball and stun a sardine. Then it can gobble the fish down.
Sometimes the sailfish even skewer sardines on the end of their bills. Whoa! Did you see that? Watch it again in slow motion!
Here comes a sailfish from the left and it nails a sardine right in front of the camera! Even in slow motion it’s fast. Watch it even slower. Boom! Right there! Talk about good aim!
The action is incredibly fast-paced and tiring. I have to keep up with the action, which keeps moving. My legs are getting tired. Eventually, I can’t keep up with the baitball and the action drifts too far away.
The boat comes and picks me up. I’ll get a quick rest, then they will drop me back in close to the fish.
A few minutes later, I’m ready to go again.
I get my bearings and then I’m back into the sailfish.
You can see in this shot that when a sailfish swims, it folds its dorsal fin down to reduce drag.
But then, BOOM it pops the dorsal fin up like a sail. Did you see that? Watch it again in slow motion. There! We can only guess why the sailfish has such a large sail-like dorsal fin, but it appears they use the sail to frighten the sardines by surprising them, or possibly to look larger when they are herding the fish.
The sailfish work together to keep the sardines from escaping below and one by one, they pick off each and every sardine, until the entire baitball is gone.
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