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  • - Come on, come on, come here,

  • I think I got a small animal!

  • - Whaddya got?

  • - I got a seahorse!

  • - What, it's not a seahorse...

  • - I got a seahorse!

  • - Oh, did you really?

  • - Yeah!

  • - Are you kidding me?

  • - No, look!

  • (dramatic music)

  • (splashing)

  • - As the morning sun rose,

  • it cast a golden glow over the rolling dunes.

  • Waves crashed upon the sandy shores,

  • and as they receded one set at a time,

  • the water levels dropped, signaling the arrival of low tide.

  • I could sense adventure in the air,

  • and as I worked my way down the shoreline,

  • I looked out across the Atlantic Ocean,

  • and envisioned the challenge set before me.

  • Wow!

  • This is beautiful, look at this,

  • you got pelicans right back here,

  • and today we're at the Key Biscane Nature Center,

  • and we're gonna do something a little bit different.

  • To catch creatures today I'm actually gonna

  • bring the crew out there with me.

  • You guys are actually gonna put down the main cameras,

  • pick up Go Pros and nets.

  • There's a lot of water to cover

  • and the more nets we have in the water,

  • the better chance we have of finding some creatures.

  • Today's expedition Beyond the Tide is a little different,

  • as we will be working in conjunction

  • with the Biscayne Nature Center.

  • Located on the Northern end of Crandon Park,

  • this multi-functional center

  • is a not-for-profit organization

  • dedicated to environmental education

  • and citizen participation

  • in the protection of our natural environment.

  • Using dip-nets, our aim was to catch native species,

  • and present them in a controlled setting,

  • before releasing them back into the wild.

  • We were told that there were

  • many creatures we could come across,

  • but nothing was more coveted than the elusive seahorse.

  • So, with nets in the water, the search was on.

  • (mellow music)

  • - [Mark] Let me see, what'd you get?

  • - [Mario] We got a little lobster!

  • - [Mark] Oh my gosh!

  • (lighthearted music)

  • - [Mario] I got a shrimp!

  • What'd you catch, Coyote?

  • Lemme see.

  • - [Coyote] Oh, yeah.

  • - [Mario] Ah ostraciidae, that's cool.

  • Yeah, put them in the bucket.

  • - [Mark] Come on, seahorse!

  • - [Mario] We got a pipefish!

  • - [Mark] No way!

  • - [Mario] He was wiggling right through.

  • - [Mark] Look at that!

  • Oh man, that's awesome!

  • - We're one step closer to a seahorse.

  • - [Mark] Hey, great find.

  • - Same family.

  • - [Mark] Yeah, that was awesome.

  • Look at all those fish!

  • Nice!

  • You're doin' great!

  • - [Mario] Ah here's a cool one.

  • He's really puffed up.

  • - Oh, man, he's beautiful.

  • - Know what this is missing?

  • - A seahorse.

  • - Definitely, gotta catch a seahorse.

  • - [Mark] Coyote.

  • - Yeah?

  • - [Mark] You got competition, man.

  • - Wow, look at all those kids.

  • They got 'em out here trying to catch seahorses for us.

  • This is a lot harder than I thought.

  • I thought we'd catch lots of seahorses.

  • We've gone quite a ways, covered some serious ground,

  • found all sorts of cool creatures.

  • We got pipefish, puffer fish,

  • file fish, all fish, we need a seahorse,

  • which is also technically a fish.

  • And a horse, I guess, at the same time.

  • All right, keep searching.

  • - [Mark] Come on, come on, come here,

  • I think I got a small animal!

  • - Whaddya got?

  • - [Mark] I got a seahorse!

  • - What, it's not a seahorse...

  • - [Mark] I got a seahorse!

  • - Oh, did you really?

  • - [Mark] Yeah!

  • - Are you kidding me?

  • - [Mark] No, look!

  • - [Coyote] No way!

  • - [Mark] Aw, man, look at that!

  • That is our star animal!

  • - [Coyote] We got it!

  • - [Mark] We got a seahorse!

  • - Wow! You did it!

  • - Yeah!

  • That's a wrap, folks!

  • We'll I'd say it's a success, we have two buckets

  • full of little sea creatures,

  • but the most important thing is we caught a seahorse.

  • Yeah!

  • Look at all of these sea creatures!

  • - [Mark] We did really well!

  • - We did amazing!

  • Considering the fact we were only out there

  • in the seagrass for about an hour.

  • Look at all of these creatures!

  • Okay, now we're not going to go into detail

  • about all of these animals,

  • but I at least wanted to take a look

  • and get them up close for the camera for just a second

  • and then we're gonna get on to our star feature creature.

  • Okay, now these are trunkfish, or cowfish,

  • but because these are so little, these are babies,

  • they're actually adorably referred to as peafish.

  • I mean that is about the cutest little fish I've ever seen.

  • I'm gonna turn him like this.

  • Look at his little face.

  • - [Mark] Look at his little beak.

  • - He's got that little trunk up front,

  • those big, buggy eyes and obviously it's that

  • green coloration that gives them the name peafish.

  • I know, you wanna get back in the water,

  • here we go, plop!

  • Bloop!

  • There you go.

  • Now those are file fish. Check that out.

  • They're very flat, which I imagine

  • that's where they get their name from, filefish,

  • and they have a really distinct horn on top of their heads.

  • Come here, little fishy.

  • Woah, they're quick.

  • Woah!

  • He jumped right outta there!

  • See, when you zoom in on the top of his head there...

  • You see that?

  • That, there you go, you see that?

  • - [Mark] Yeah.

  • - Keep your focus there.

  • There you go, now you can see it.

  • Woah, woah, woah, I feel ya.

  • He wants to get back in the water.

  • There you go.

  • Plopped him right back in there.

  • Now we have to keep all of these sea creatures in water.

  • You'll notice that each and every one of them

  • is I fresh seawater, and in case you're wondering,

  • yes they all will be released back out into the wild

  • once we take a close look.

  • Okay should we keep it with fish?

  • - [Mark] Yeah let's stick with fish.

  • - Okay, which one do you guys wanna look at next?

  • - [Mark] How about that spiky one over there?

  • - Oh, yes, the porcupine puffer fish.

  • Now when we caught him he was deflated,

  • and as soon as they get agitated, they puff up their bodies.

  • They're incredibly sharp.

  • Let me get him out of here.

  • He's gonna stay puffed up until we release him

  • back out into the ocean.

  • And he's a lot heavier than you would think,

  • so just keeping him in the palm of my hand...

  • My fingers are all wrinkly, you see this,

  • from being in the ocean water all day,

  • and that makes my fingers much more susceptible

  • to those spines.

  • He feels like a little pincushion.

  • Non-venomous, but go ahead,

  • Mark put your hand out there,

  • I'm gonna actually place it, put your hand flat.

  • - [Mark] Oh, okay.

  • - And tell everybody, he's actually heavy, isn't he?

  • - [Mark] Oh! Yeah, spiky!

  • Yeah, it weighs...

  • So, I'm guessing that's not just air.

  • - No, that's not just air,

  • he's got water inside of his body.

  • (squeak)

  • Oh! You hear him squeakin'?

  • He's squeakin'!

  • Now, when it's deflated, it looks like a normal fish,

  • and the coolest defense about these creatures

  • is that obviously they're capable of puffing up

  • into a spiky ball.

  • They've actually found sharks before that have died

  • from eating one of these fish.

  • They get it into their mouth and then, ppfft!

  • It puffs up like a balloon, and you can imagine

  • how painful that would be to have a throat full of spikes.

  • And while your camera's down there, Mark,

  • you see this other fish that we have?

  • That is a scorpionfish.

  • - [Mark] Ooh, sounds bad.

  • - [Coyote] Yeah, they have spines

  • on their back pectoral fins.

  • I'm not going to pick it up because if I do

  • I will be stung and it's incredibly painful.

  • - [Mark] So is a scorpionfish at all like an angler fish?

  • I notice it has an appendage on the front of its mouth.

  • - [Coyote] No, angler fishes use those appendages

  • of the front of their faces to lure in prey.

  • These appendages growing off the scorpionfish

  • are more used for camouflage.

  • They are ocean floor dwelling fish,

  • and it's more like a gobi in the way

  • that it will move across the bottom,

  • and that's how people oftentimes run across these fish.

  • If they're on the bottom of the ocean floor,

  • and you're barefoot and you're walking,

  • and you step on this...

  • Yeah, you're gonna be in some serious pain.

  • You know who we forgot?

  • - [Mark] The little puffer?

  • - [Coyote] The little puffer, he's hiding in there.

  • - [Mark] He's hiding by the scorpionfish for protection.

  • - [Coyote] See, he's clever.

  • Here let me move...

  • This is a little risky here.

  • Oh boy, oh boy.

  • Okay, check this out.

  • This little pufferfish,

  • watch if I just kinda tickle his belly...

  • Up, up, up, up!

  • Look at that!

  • - [Mark] Is that air or water?

  • - [Coyote] That is air.

  • That is air that he just...

  • That little chirping noise is him sucking in the air.

  • There you go, up, up, up, up, up!

  • - [Mark] Let's see what else we have.

  • Let's move on from fish.

  • What else do we have besides fish?

  • - Let's look at some of the crustaceans.

  • Now, I caught this one.

  • This is just a little, tiny baby, but that is a spider crab.

  • That is a little, tiny, baby spider crab.

  • - [Mark] Why is it called a spider crab?

  • - [Coyote] Because of its legs.

  • They look like a spider when they're walking.

  • - [Mark] Do those stay small or do they grow?

  • - No, these grow.

  • They can grow to be pretty large, actually,

  • I mean, big, huge, huge.

  • - [Mark] No way!

  • - Huge crabs, yeah.

  • - [Mark] But those wouldn't be out here in the--

  • - No, they're out deep.

  • They're out deep.

  • As they get larger they move deeper out into the ocean

  • it is a deep sea crab species.

  • - [Mark] So it's kind of like

  • the seagrass is like a nursery, right?

  • - [Coyote] Yeah!

  • Well, it provides a lot of camouflage, a lot of cover,

  • a lot of places to hide for these smaller creatures,

  • and once they do grow larger,

  • they head out into deeper waters,

  • specifically something like this.

  • Check it out.

  • Right here...

  • Woah, come here.

  • - [Mark] What is that?

  • - [Coyote] A little, baby spiny lobster.

  • See that?

  • Look how tiny he is.

  • - [Mark] Oh my gosh, look how teeny he is!

  • - Is that the smallest lobster you've ever seen?

  • We're gonna just put him back,

  • and let's look at a larger one.

  • Now this one we actually borrowed from the nature center.

  • Now that is a much larger spiny lobster,

  • and they get that name because you can see

  • all the spines on the antennae, and then of course,

  • these two enormous spines, right above the eyes there.

  • And running along the back..

  • Ooh, yeah, that is also very, very sharp,

  • but the good news for me is that this lobster species

  • does not have any pinchers.

  • All right.

  • - [Mark] I think there's gonna be one more thing

  • on the table until we get to the grand finale.

  • - Yes, the grand finale creature.

  • Okay, these are related to our star creature.

  • These are pipefish.

  • Look at it's face.

  • Very elongated and that snout

  • is like a little vacuum cleaner,

  • and that's how they catch their prey.

  • They suck the prey up through their mouth,

  • they have a fixed jaw, so they don't actually have teeth,

  • they can't chew, they actually don't have stomachs, either.

  • As the food works through their mouth

  • it just disintegrates in their body

  • and then they poop it out.

  • - [Mark] That one looks even more like a seahorse.

  • Oh yeah.

  • - There you go.

  • - [Mark] Cool.

  • - Look at that face.

  • You may be wondering to yourself, well,

  • "Do they have gills?"

  • Yes, like all fish they have gills,

  • they do have a skeleton and then this hard exoskeleton

  • on the outside is what keeps them rigid

  • and also protects them.

  • - [Mark] Very neat.

  • - I'm gonna put him back down.

  • Okay, if you guys are ready,

  • I know you've all been anticipating the reveal

  • of that little, tiny seahorse

  • that I caught out there in the seagrass.

  • Now they tell me they only catch

  • about three seahorses a week,

  • so I said we were pretty lucky to be out there for an hour

  • and actually come across one of these

  • amazing little creatures.

  • Look at that, it's tiny, right?

  • This is one of the slowest fish species in the world.

  • Actually the slowest is the dwarf seahorse.

  • Now let's look at this creature's head.

  • Notice that long, tube-like snout.

  • Just like the pipefish they do not have teeth.

  • That snout works like a vacuum cleaner,

  • so they'll hunt around in crevices of rocks

  • searching for little tiny shrimp and then, swoosh!

  • They suck the shrimp in, and have a meal.

  • What's really cool is that I can see it's little

  • pectoral fins fluttering very quickly,

  • and they use that dorsal fin on their back as locomotion.

  • Wow, look at that, just swimmin' around.

  • I wonder if he can see his own reflection

  • in the bottom of that--

  • - [Mario] Hey!

  • - Yeah?

  • - [Mario] Look what I got!

  • - [Mark] What is it?

  • - You didn't catch that!

  • - [Mario] I did not but one of the students did!

  • - What?

  • - [Mark] Oh, man.

  • - Look at that!

  • - [Mark] Somebody caught a bigger seahorse than Coyote!

  • - I thought I had the seahorse of the day!

  • So, if you guys remember, there might have been some

  • B-roll shots in there of a bunch of kids out there

  • also with us trying to catch creatures.

  • There were around 100 of them with nets

  • also looking for seahorses and sure enough

  • they caught a big one.

  • This is actually perfect because this will give me

  • the chance to take the seahorse out of water...

  • Wow!

  • - [Mark] That's a good one!

  • - Look at that!

  • That's a great one.

  • - [Mark] A lot darker.

  • - Yeah a lot darker.

  • And, it's very rigid.

  • They have a very strong outer exoskeleton

  • and unlike fish they do not have scales.

  • They have gills, they have eyes, they have fins,

  • they do not have scales.

  • I'm gonna put it back down into the water here.

  • Actually I'm gonna put it in with the little seahorse.

  • - [Mark] Yeah, let's see them next to each other.

  • - [Coyote] Yeah, get that top of there, here we go.

  • - [Mark] Seahorses live in packs, right?

  • - Yeah, do you know what a group of seahorses is called?

  • - [Mark] I don't know.

  • - What do you call a group of horses?

  • - [Mark] A herd.

  • - A herd, that's right.

  • A group of seahorses is called a herd.

  • And do you know what you call a baby seahorse?

  • - [Mario] A pony?

  • - [Mark] A pony!

  • - No!

  • - [Mark] A colt!

  • - Although it would make sense.

  • Or, no, not colt.

  • A fry!

  • So, imagine a very itty bitty, tiny seahorse,

  • it's a small fry, right?

  • - [Mario] Nice.

  • - [Mark] So you caught a small fry.

  • - [Coyote] I guess, yeah, I caught a small fry,

  • or maybe mine's a female and this one's a male,

  • that could be the case.

  • Now one of the coolest things

  • about the seahorse is its eyesight.

  • They have excellent eyesight and their eyes

  • are actually capable of working independently

  • from one another, which means that they can

  • look forward and backward at the same time.

  • This is what allows them to be such excellent predators.

  • You look at a creature like this and you would think

  • "Is that thing really a great hunter?"

  • And it really is.

  • And they will eat 30 to 50 times a day,

  • so when this creature wakes up in the morning,

  • basically its function is to swim slowly

  • and search out food.

  • - [Mark] Do seahorses...

  • Are they known to hang on to each other?

  • - Yeah, they will.

  • They have an actually a really incredible courting display.

  • Males and females, they actually pair for life,

  • if you didn't know that,

  • which makes them very unique amongst other fish.

  • In the morning when the sun's coming out they

  • will actually dance back and forth with each other,

  • sometimes that dance can last for up to two hours.

  • Isn't that crazy?

  • And then they go about their day hunting for food,

  • but they do pair for life.

  • So, when we take these seahorses back out there,

  • we need to make sure that we let them go

  • right in the same spot that we found them.

  • - [Mark] Well, we will do that.

  • - And we will certainly do that.

  • Well this was pretty excellent.

  • Spending the day here at the Biscayne Nature Center

  • getting up close with all of these amazing sea creatures.

  • The only thing left to do now is get 'em

  • back out into the ocean.

  • I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild!

  • We'll see you on the next adventure.

  • Aww, they're still holding tails.

  • Spending time searching for sea creatures

  • was an educational experience I will always remember.

  • The coolest part is that

  • this is an adventure you can go on.

  • To learn how, visit the Biscayne Nature Center's website.

  • Become a part of their conservation effort.

  • If you thought catching sea creatures in the Atlantic Ocean

  • was exciting, make sure to go back and watch

  • our adventure to the Pacific side of Costa Rica,

  • where we got up close with some

  • seriously bizarre looking animals.

  • And don't forget, subscribe, so you can join me and the crew

  • on our next aquatic adventure.

  • Did you see how quickly I was able to collect them?

  • There are probably about 60 or 70 of them

  • right in this pocket, and look at that.

  • You can see 'em so much better now that

  • they're in this clear container.

  • (dramatic music)

  • (coyote howling)

- Come on, come on, come here,

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