He is best known for his role as the host of Jonathan Bird's Blue World, a family-friendly underwater exploration program on public television in the United States.

His first book, Beneath the North Atlantic, a collection of his favorite images from the waters of New England, was published in 1997 by Tide-mark Press.

[9] His first television film, Sharks: The Real Story, co-produced with longtime collaborator Art Cohen, was completed in 1995 and aired on PBS.

[16] After gaining a fan base there, NETA offered Jonathan Bird’s Blue World distribution to U.S. public television.

He plays guitar in The Wetsuits, a rock band made up of all professional underwater photographers including Michel Gilbert, Danielle Alary, Michael Lawrence, and Paul Cater Deaton.

[22] He is a member of the Wyland Ocean Artist Society[23] and a 2019 inductee of the International Scuba Diving Hall of fame.