10 Minutes to Bingo

Obligatory fan photo.  Photo: Ashley

There's a new show on ABC called "Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin" that explores various marine (or other underwater) environments which are sources of great unknown.  As I have mentioned several times before, UM has a very special underwater archaeological site about 3 and a half hours away from Miami called Little Salt Spring.  Thanks to the way and the time that the spring formed, it is home to countless bones and artifacts from the Paleoindian era some 11,000 years old.  Thanks to the anoxic conditions of the water, these clues to the past are left intact and preserved in astonishing quality.  Needless to say, the site fit the bill for Corwin's show and incredibly enough everything came together and he and his crew ventured south to North Port, FL for a day of filming.

I will not reveal very much in the interest of keeping the theme of the show.  Actually, I don't want to say much because I urge you all to tune in at 11am EST to ABC and see the 30minute segment yourselves.  The things I will expand upon are those things that you will not get from watching the final edit.

Me managing surface supply.  Photo: Mark

Jeff Corwin is good at what he does.  He is a television personality who is the star of his show, brings energy and excitement to anything, and makes science understandable for society.  He's reasonably down to earth but years of being in front of the camera seem to have had an effect.  He was genuinely interested in the site, the science, and the wildlife on the compound of Little Salt but largely disinterested in the little people like me.  It was difficult keeping him engaged in conversation so I stopped trying, even when I sat near him throughout all of lunch.  I never met Steve Irwin but after meeting the guy most commonly compared to him, I wish I would have had the opportunity.  After seeing so many shows and interviews of Irwin, I really do feel that his heart was really into everything, not just putting on a good television show and "paying for my wife's Lexus" as Jeff seemed to be.  Perhaps I'm being too critical and really I'm just disappointed that he had more to think about than showing any interest in the little people.  As I said above, he is very good at what he does and no one can take that from him.