The Briny is a podcast about how we're changing the sea, and how the sea changes us. Each episode is a sound-rich deep dive into the stories that anchor us to the ocean. Produced by Matt Frassica.
Host Matt explores how a found Pepsi bottle reveals the future of coastlines amidst climate change and rising sea levels.
15 Oct 2024
Rebuilding the Ladder
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 (https://damariscottamills.org/)
1 Jun 2024
The Real Alewives of Kennebec County
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 (https://mainerivers.org/)
Additional Music Credits
"Our Only Lark" by Blue Dot Sessions
21 May 2022
Animal Spirits
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 (http://www.domsetco.org/)
GoFundMe for the Rosalie Conservation Center
11 Jan 2021
Fear Is the Thing with Fins
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.”
24 Jul 2020
Turn Down for Whales
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).
2 Apr 2020
A Quarantine Aquarium
As the pandemic rages, we’re all staying home. That has cut many of us off from the places we go to find solace in normal times. Coupled with the endless stream of terrible news washing over us, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. So where do you turn to calm down when you can’t pull your eyes away from your computer screen? Filmmaker Jessica Ellis has a suggestion: aquarium webcams. Watching some swaying kelp or undulating jellies helps her restore mental balance. And she’s not alone. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Ken Peterson, their web traffic is up ten-fold since the start of the lockdown.
Links
Monterey Bay Aquarium web cams
“What Lies West” (https://www.whatlieswest.com/)
Hub & Spoke (https://www.hubspokeaudio.org/)
Music
“Kelp Forest” by Douglas Morton
4 Dec 2018
#7: The White Whale
Michael Gorman looked up to his older brother Kevin. Kevin was smart, independent, rebellious. He became a commercial fisherman, despite the fact that fishing jobs were drying up. But along the way Kevin developed a heroin addiction that took over his life, and he died of an overdose. Michael’s response to his brother’s death was to write a series of plays that make parallels between Melville’s “Moby Dick” and opiate addiction in the fishing industry. Gorman has brought his plays to venues like the Portland Fish Exchange in Portland, Maine, and the Fisherman’s Co-op in Vinalhaven, where they become part teach-in, part community catharsis. His latest play, “Chasing the New White Whale,” runs at LaMama theater in New York through December 9, 2018.
Links
http://lamama.org/new_white_whale/
Music
“Flaked Paint” by Blue Dot Sessions
22 Oct 2018
#6: Something Fishy, part 2
Conservation-minded regulations have cut New England’s groundfishing fleet in half. But have they improved the health of the ecosystem? Some fish stocks are recovering, while others - like cod - have continued to decline. And the quota system designed to protect those species creates a perverse incentive: fishermen are throwing dead fish overboard rather than landing them, further damaging the health of the stocks.
18 Sept 2018
#5: Something Fishy, part 1
Tim Rider loves to fish, and he does it well: the fish he catches bring top dollar at high-end restaurants in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire for their quality. But even though his operation is a model of ecological stewardship, regulations designed to help rebuild depleted fish stocks in New England are making it hard for small-scale fishermen like Tim to make a living.
8 May 2018
#4: The Business of Elvers
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.
30 Nov 2017
#3: The One Who Came Back
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 (http://www.capeannmuseum.org/)
Three Sheets to the Wind
30 Sept 2017
#2: Fish Camp
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 (http://www.mrandmrsfish.com/)
18 Aug 2017
#1: Whales of New York
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 (https://www.gothamwhale.org/)
Eric Jay Dolin (https://www.ericjaydolin.com/leviathan)
Results from the New York Bight buoy (http://dcs.whoi.edu/nyb0616/nyb0616.shtml)
Inside a recent episode
No deposit, no return
Published 19 Jun 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] There's very little dune left, actually, in some of these places. And we saw the northeast-facing dunes actually did much better than the dunes that were facing southeast. Will uses drones to precisely map the contours of beaches. It's a research project he started in December 2023, just a month before the storms hit. And his research showed that the storms washed away huge stretches of beach and sand dunes in southern Maine. So we could see that the beaches retreated in some cases 30 or 40 feet from where they used to be. I think it really woke a lot of people up. woke people up to the fact that climate change is only going to produce larger and more frequent storms like this in the future, causing more and more damage. […]
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