The Briny – Details, episodes & analysis

Alewife, a fish with a funny name, lives in the ocean and swims upstream to spawn in lakes along the east coast of North America. Historically, their vast populations fed everything from eagles to whales. But human-made obstructions like dams have blocked some of their largest migration routes for centuries. This is the story of how a group of determined citizens cleared one stream in Maine—and waited for the alewife to return.

Links

Maine Rivers

Music Credits

Our Only Lark by Blue Dot Sessions

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Alewife, a species of river herring native to Eastern North America, has been harvested at Maine's Damariscotta Mills fish ladder since the early 1800s. Two hundred years later, the ladder was falling apart and the numbers of fish making their way upstream to spawn had dwindled. So a group of local residents started raising money to rebuild it. They decided to start a festival devoted to this little fish with a funny name. But would anyone come?

Links

Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration

Every spring, fishermen in Maine put out nets to catch baby eels - also known as elvers - as they make their way up streams from the ocean. They don't look like much, but the 2-inch-long eels are worth up to $2,500 per pound, making them about 500 times more valuable by weight than lobster. That's because aquaculture operations in Asia will raise the wild-caught eels to full size, then sell them for their meat. And while populations in Europe and Asia have collapsed, Maine and South Carolina are the only states that allow fishermen to catch the baby eels. The result? Huge profits for the few fishermen who have permits to catch them. Darrell Young, co-director and founder of the Maine Elver Fishermen's Association, explains the business and takes us to check his nets outside Ellsworth, Maine.

Every year, hundreds of Gloucester fishermen went to sea and never returned. Howard Blackburn should have been one of them. His story of survival against the odds made him a local hero, but he didn't stop there. He went on to perform one of the great feats of seafaring - and then he did it again.

Music

"Emmit Sprak" by Blue Dot Sessions

"Freezing" by David Szesztay

"Celadon" by Podington Bear

"In My Head" by Podington Bear

"Sad Cyclops" by Podington Bear

"Skeptic" by Podington Bear

Links

Cape Ann Museum

Three Sheets to the Wind

Jeff and Deb Sandler (a.k.a. Mr. and Mrs. Fish) couldn't stand each other when they met - they were rivals for the job of education director of Maine's Portland Aquarium. Four decades later, they've traveled all over the world getting kids excited about marine biology with a mix of theater, slapstick comedy, and songs. Along the way, they fell in love. Now they've reached the last week of Fish Camp, and they're getting ready to hang up their flippers.

Music

"Partly Sage" by Blue Dot Sessions

"Rythme Gitan" by Latché Swing

"Inamorata" by Blue Dot Sessions

"Twosome" by Podington Bear

"Everybody" by Podington Bear

Links

Mr. and Mrs. Fish

Hundreds of years of hunting decimated whale populations around the world. More than 50 years since global whaling restrictions were put in place, the North Atlantic right whale is still on the verge of extinction. Other species have begun to bounce back - notably humpback whales, which have returned to the waters around New York City. But now they face a new danger: swimming in the East Coast's busiest shipping lanes.

Music

"Vulcanizing Society" by Barnacled

"Complect for…" by Kosta T

"Denzel Sprak" by Blue Dot Sessions

"Emmit Sprak" by Blue Dot Sessions

"Helmer Sprak" by Blue Dot Sessions

"Zither Sprak" by Blue Dot Sessions

Links

Gotham Whale

Eric Jay Dolin

Results from the New York Bight buoy

Alewife, a fish with a funny name, lives in the ocean and swims upstream to spawn in lakes along the east coast of North America. Historically, their vast populations fed everything from eagles to whales. But human-made obstructions like dams have blocked some of their largest migration routes for centuries. This is the story of how a group of determined citizens cleared one stream in Maine—and waited for the fish to return.

Links

Maine Rivers

Additional Music Credits

"Our Only Lark" by Blue Dot Sessions

On the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica, a remote beach serves as an ideal place for sea turtles to lay their eggs. The Dominica Sea Turtle Conservation Organization (DomSeTCO) keeps watch over the turtles when they come ashore and protects them from poachers. But after the devastation of Hurricane Maria, DomSeTCO's organizers knew they needed more than shoestring grants to stay solvent — they needed a business plan. Marine biologist Jake Levenson had an idea that drew on the island's agricultural strengths: why not try making rum?

Links

Dominica Sea Turtle Conservation Organization

GoFundMe for the Rosalie Conservation Center

After a shark scare when she was a teenager, Pat Gallant-Charette never liked wading past her waist. So when she decided in her 40s to compete in a 2.4-mile ocean swim, she had to suppress her fears. Now an internationally decorated marathon swimmer, Pat still wrestles with anxiety on every swim. And she has seen sharks. But she tells herself: "stay focused, and swim."

Researchers have found that ocean noise is a big problem for underwater life. Human activities like shipping, naval exercises, and oil exploration pump the oceans full of loud noises that marine species haven't adapted to. So when the global economy ground to a halt due to COVID-19, did the ocean quiet down?

Links

Dugald J. M. Thomson and David Barclay. "Real-time observations of the impact of COVID-19 on underwater noise." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 147: 3390 (2020).

Rosalind M. Rolland, et al. "Evidence that ship noise increases stress in right whales." Proc. R. Soc. B. 279: 2363–2368 (2012).