- Today on "Table For All," grab your waders and your sunscreen as we meet the people celebrating and protecting the waters of the region and creating community along the way.

From oystermen sharing their traditions, and a couple of friends using the mighty oyster to restore the coast, to a group of outriggers, carrying on the ancient Hawaiian tradition under the backdrop of the New York City skyline.

And it's a Polynesian potluck you won't soon forget.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] The Northeast is known for many things, but what it's famous for is its coastline, sandy beaches, and of course the seafood.

And the catch of the day is oysters.

Oysters have pearled their way onto the fabric of American history since the first fishermen, the indigenous tribes, sustainably caught and farmed oysters for over 5,000 years.

The water surrounding Manhattan in the 1800s were stuffed to the gills with oyster beds, earning New York the nickname, The Big Oyster.

But eventually over harvesting and poor water quality wiped out the population.

But now the oyster is making a big comeback, with restored habitats and increased restaurant demand.

And what shellfish fans might not know is that tiny oyster shell holds the power to restore the ocean.

To find out how one man's leftover shells are saving the planet and combating climate change I headed to the Shell and Bones restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut to meet Tim and Todd, two besties who started Collective Oyster Recycling and Restoration, CORR for short.

Now for two individuals who work with oysters constantly, are you sick of oysters yet?

- No.

- Never?

- Never.

- Never.

- [Buki] Okay.

We shared a freshly shucked dozen and they schooled me on oysters 101.

- These are Connecticut oysters, they're a little bit larger.

But these are from Maine, but these will be a little sweeter.

And these are from Prince Edward Island.

So the colder water oysters tend to be a little bit smaller 'cause it takes longer to grow in cold water.

And they'll all have subtle differences, depending on where they're grown.

- Since we're in Connecticut, right?

Let's start with Connecticut.

Right.

- [Todd] It's big and plump.

- Big and plump.

- Yeah.

- [Tim] I'm going straight up.

- Ooh!

- Right.

- So that's got some salt to it.

- Mm hmm.

- Don't forget, you gotta put 'em in here.

- Oh, I see that.

The reason why I'm here.

[tin clanging] Tim and Todd told me all about how their passion for oysters turned into a mission to protect our waters.

- They're good for the planet, they're a food source.

They provide habitat for other animals, they filter water.

There's not that many things that you can eat that have so many environmental benefits for the marine environment.

So it's just, I find 'em to be pretty miraculous in that way.

- Baby oysters grow best on other oyster shells, so recycling the shells and putting them back in the water is CORR's mission to help grow oyster habitats and rejuvenate the waters of Connecticut.

I mean, what sparked this need to save the planet via oysters?

- Well, I grew up in Connecticut on the water.

I've always had a love for the water.

We wanted to do some restoration work, and one of the key components to restoring oyster reefs is oyster shell.

We learned pretty quickly that shell was in short supply and we couldn't get it.

And then we were like started doing a little research and we found there's a lot of other coastal states that have shell recycling programs, but for some reason there wasn't one in Connecticut.

- Tim and Todd started CORR fom that very need.

They would pick up the leftover oyster shells in the back of their own cars to have them cleaned and recycled.

Now over nine years later, the budding nonprofit is the go-to for restaurants all across Connecticut and doing its part to return our waters to their former glory.

How does this whole thing work?

Grab the shells, toss 'em back in the water, and people are thinking, so how is this helping us?

- So they're kind of a reef-forming species, so as they grow, they'll kind of expand and that helps protect the shoreline against erosion, wave action during storms.

So it'll help really kind of stabilize that shoreline.

- What has been the reaction from the community for all this?

- I think everyone's initial reactions- - Absolutely positive.

- Yeah.

- Really positive.

Like wow, like "Why weren't we doing this?"

- All of the shell that was sold in restaurants was just going in the trash.

And that's hundreds of thousands of pounds per year.

We're just kind of doing something.

We're kind of closing the loop on this.

- Should we take these and actually recycle them and see how we do?

- Well, let's finish these.

Can you do one more?

- I can do one more.

Cheers.

Here's to oysters.

- Cheers.

- [Buki] Once the oyster shells are collected from restaurants, they're brought to CORR's stockpile where they will be dried and cured for six months, making them safe to return back to the water.

We grabbed a bucket of dried and cured shells, threw on our waders and headed to a tucked away creek to put the shells back into the water to let them do what they do best.

- [Todd] This gives a new meaning to working for your supper.

[Tim laughs] - Well, you know, I'll do it.

- But you're gonna basically be a father to all these oysters.

Or a landlord, either one.

[Buki laughs] - I prefer a landlord.

- Okay.

[laughs] [upbeat music] All right.

So check this out, Buki.

So this is kind of why we plant that recycled shell, you see?

- These little guys.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's probably about a little over a year old.

So it landed on there.

These are probably about six months old.

They got like three of them right here.

One, two, three.

But this is basically kind of like a little nursery.

This is where the kind of life cycle starts for all of them.

- Wow.

- And that starts a lot with this recycled shell.

We have a little small part in it, so.

- Yeah.

Small part, but making a big impact.

- Yeah, I love that.

Thank you.

- With our shells all recycled, the next step is harvesting.

Tim and Todd introduced me to Kim and Emilie.

Longtime oystermen who harvest out of the same creek.

What are those ancient torture devices in your hand?

- These are called tongs and we're gonna invite you to come and do some tonging with us.

You want to tong up some oysters?

- Let's tong it up.

[laughs] - Alright.

Definitely.

- Wonderful.

- [Buki] And before I could say mignonette sauce, Kim had me in the water tonging like a pro.

- Basically what we're gonna do, is start about two feet apart.

Bounce 'em up and down.

Jiggle 'em towards each other until you get 'em there.

Yeah, okay.

Pick it up and put it in this basket.

So what comes up?

This is a select, which is what we could sell to the market.

So everything goes in here.

Outta six tubs I get 100 selects.

So I do a half a dozen, gives me a basket.

- That's a lot of work, Kim.

- Yeah it is.

[Buki laughs] Somebody's gotta do it though.

- Somebody's gotta do it.

With our basket of selects collected, Kim and Emilie showed me where the oysters finish growing.

They took me to their marine railway and we launched the good ship Bantam out onto the gorgeous waters of the Thimble Islands.

[engine revving] - Alright.

- Alright.

Now we're cooking with gas.

Off on the waters.

I'm an oysterman, right?

- You are.

- Look at you.

[group laughing] ♪ In this great big world [upbeat music continues] ♪ In this great big world - We made it.

To where, I'm not so sure, but Kim and Emilie expertly navigated us to the location where the selects are released to finish growing.

So these are not ready to eat, even though they're at the size they need to be.

- Correct.

And so we'll leave them out minimum of two weeks, could be longer.

And when we harvest these cages back, we'll go through, sort them one more time.

Make sure that they're all the right size.

Some will have grown, some will be too big to be on a plate.

- And then we mark down the date and the color so that we know when we put them out and when we can harvest them.

So that goes in a book.

- This is so much more complicated than I even expected.

We counted, we sorted and we marked for future harvesting.

And we'll see you in two weeks.

After letting our selects go, Emilie showed me how to pull a catch.

- [Kim] Where you just keep pulling it until it won't come anymore.

[Buki grunts] - The closest I'll ever come to buried treasure.

There you go.

- I'd argue it tastes better.

- Yeah.

Just dump that.

- Tip this out.

Yep.

[oysters thudding] - We washed everything down, sorted the best sized oysters for restaurants and let the others keep saving our planet.

After all this hard work, it was finally time to sample the fruits of our labor.

Whoo.

- Is that okay?

- That's delicious.

- That's right.

Eating an oyster is like being kissed by the sea.

- It sure is.

It tastes like the ocean.

- Tastes like the ocean.

Yeah.

- Wow.

- Pretty good.

They're little animals that you're eating and people just think about it as something delicious and kind of move on.

They are really important.

- [Buki] To the oyster.

- To the oyster.

- I love that.

Well, I appreciate it.

Thank you guys for showing me how to be an oysterman.

- It's been a pleasure having you aboard.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- I mean, I won't quit my day job.

[Kim and Emilie laughing] But maybe on the weekends I'll come by.

- You're a great second mate.

- We'll shuck it.

We'll do what we gotta do.

As we headed back, Emilie's father and the man who taught her everything she knows, Jonathan was waiting for us on shore.

Jonathan grew up on a nearby island and learned the love of fishing from his father.

He studied and became an accomplished sculptor, but left his art career in New York City to come back to his home town and live the life of a fisherman.

We sat down overlooking their home away from home.

What does the water mean to you?

- I really feel that I'm happiest on the water, happiest working on the water.

It's just been so much a part of my life.

- There's a saying from some of the old timers around here that any day on the water starts at an 8.5.

And I would agree with that.

It's always a good one when you can be out there.

- You all have been working together for a while now.

When I heard about this, I thought if I had to work with my mother or father, someone's getting murdered.

[Emilie laughs] How do you all work together and stay so close?

Because that boat is not huge.

- Right.

I feel like the old circus horse, you know, who does his routine.

You know, Emilie's got our own ideas about how to do things and I'm totally open to it because that really is the future.

- Especially working on the water, it's so important to have the experience of someone who's been doing it for a long time.

From a safety perspective, from just a sheer volume of knowledge, I have a lot to learn at any given moment, so I'm willing to listen and hear what he's got to say and offer.

- You studied microbiology.

- Mm hmm.

- How have you taken microbiology and infused it into being an oysterman?

- One of the things that interested me the most as a kid was seeing the impact of two diseases on the oyster and clam populations here in Connecticut and how that decimated the populations, really hurt the industry, had financial impact on our lives.

So as I then moved through my schooling, that was an area of interest.

And those oyster diseases are still prevalent in the population at really low levels right now.

And so anything I can do to help the state and their department of aquaculture in order to not have another massive die off is vitally important from my perspective.

- What is the vision and what is the mission?

- Early on, at least for myself, it was to preserve the oyster business in this area.

What's happened is not only are we involved in oyster farming, but we're also involved in historic preservation of a way of life.

It expands into so many things, environment, politics, global warming.

As the seawater rises, we're gonna be facing more pollution.

Also the physical structure of this dock, we raised this dock 18 inches in order to buy ourselves some time.

- How much time do we have?

[Emilie and Jonathan laugh] - We'll get through this.

- Okay.

- I think we got 20 years, but.

- With all the challenges, I mean climate change, over consumption, pollution, are we fighting a losing battle?

- I don't think so.

At least at community levels.

I think there is enough of a sort of buy-in to take care of the place where you're from, place where you're living, that's gonna fight against all of those pieces that you just mentioned, at least within that community.

And if there's multiple communities doing that, then we are gonna win the battle, or at least hold surf over time.

- You said the key word, community.

Is this a community?

- Very much so.

- Yes.

Very much so.

- Very much so.

We have people who keep their boats here, fix their boats here, come in, who make a point of getting to know the neighbors.

We're respectful of them.

- It's like a port of call.

- Yeah, reality is, once you're out there, you are kind of all in it together.

- Thank you both for sharing your piece of the water with me.

But before I go.

Emilie, is that an oyster tattoo on your arm?

- It's one of our oysters.

- [Buki] It's one of your oysters?

- [Emilie] Yeah.

The tattoo artist used one of our oysters as a- - You literally brought an oyster to- - I did, I brought an oyster shell.

- And said, "Paint this on me."

I'm finished.

[Emilie laughs] Now that's passion folks, when you have an oyster on your arm, Just as the Native Americans did before them, Emilie, John and Kim have created a community on the water, with respect and reverence for the bounty the waters provide.

And like the mighty oyster, by taking one small action, like recycling your oyster shells, you can make a big impact on the water as well.

85 miles down the coast, you'll find Hoboken, New Jersey.

And this tiny town has a big history.

It's not just the birthplace of baseball and the legend, Frank Sinatra, but launched the tradition of yacht racing with the first regatta taking place in 1848.

And Hoboken is also carrying on the tradition of another ancient Polynesian water sport, outrigger canoeing.

Dating all the way back to 1500 BC, outrigger canoes played a pivotal role in the migration of coastal communities in Southeast Asia and Polynesia, helping people migrate as far west as Madagascar and as far east as Hawaii.

When Hawaiians were colonized, natives faced severe cultural oppression, including the banning of the Hawaiian language being taught in schools, hula dancing and outrigger canoe races.

Today the outrigger canoe is a source of cultural pride for Hawaiians and Polynesians alike, reminding them of their cultural ties to their land and waterways.

I met up with Ke Aloha Outrigger, a group of Hawaiians and mainlanders who are preserving this tradition.

California native Keith Tsang has been outrigging for decades, but it was a chance encounter with native Polynesians that changed his outlook on the sport.

- So in 2016 there was a sailing canoe called Hokulea that actually came, they were doing a trip around the world, which was actually really fascinating for me because after paddling for over 15 years, I suddenly just went into this whole deep dive of like, what is the history, the survival, sort of the whole idea about voyaging.

And then after that, it just sort of shifted my whole perspective from kind of like racing and athleticism, to really about survival, connection to other people, to the environment, to the water, to the land.

- [Buki] What did you learn from that?

- Hawaii itself, where this is sort of really the most predominant, it's in the middle of the Pacific.

The water was really a point of connection because Hawaii was populated from somewhere else by people who actually came on the water.

And we're trying to use that Polynesian culture to try to just emphasize that water is potentially a point of connection.

It's not a barrier, as so many people see here on the East Coast.

You know, here, it's like you're trying to bridge over it or you're sort of tunneling under it.

But why do that when you can actually paddle on it and meet so many other people, be a part of the environment and really connect to everything around it.

- [Buki] Expert paddler, Yoon-jee Kim was born and raised in Hawaii.

- Growing up, I think we took it for granted, but now there's a focus to celebrate it and preserve it.

Being able to connect to my Hawaiian roots through Outrigger here in New York, is not something I take for granted.

It's so wonderful just because when you're on the Hudson out there, you kind of leave the city behind and you maintain that aloha, the calmness, the nature with you on the water.

- What can us city kids learn from the Hawaiian and the Polynesian culture?

- I think in New York City, we forget how much we do have, the Hudson River and the East River and the harbor right there.

So it's nice to be able to bring that aloha spirit to New York City.

- This whole episode is about water.

What have you learned from the water?

- The water is really a great place for connection.

We do a lot of voyages where we'll go 20, 30 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles, you know, over multiple days where we'll go to Connecticut, Newport.

The great thing is that each time that we land somewhere, we draw a crowd and people are always like, "What is this?

This is so interesting."

And it allows us an opportunity to really educate and tell people more about the culture, about the canoes, and really the historical aspects of it, and really about the aloha spirit and making those connections and making new friends has really been just eye-opening and heartwarming for all of us here.

- Well, I'm ready to connect.

I've signed the waiver, [Yoon-jee laughs] I have my sunscreen on.

Take me outrigging.

Let's do this.

Keith would much rather show me than tell me about outrigging.

So he saved me a seat on the boat to get my feet wet in this tradition, literally.

But first, a tutorial.

- Reason why it's called an outrigger canoe is specifically because of this contraption that comes out on the left side of the canoe.

So that is called our ama, that's the Hawaiian term for it.

This canoe sits six people.

We have seat one in the front, two, three, four, five, six, all the way going to the back.

Seat one and two are our strokers.

So essentially what we're doing is we're gonna be watching them the entire time and making sure that we time our strokes exactly with them.

It's one of those things where if everybody in the canoe is paddling at exactly the same time, these canoes can go really, really fast.

- [Buki] Before we headed out, Keith made sure to recite a pule or prayer in native Hawaiian to ask for blessings out on the water.

[Keith praying in Hawaiian] [group claps] Let's do it.

Go.

[Buki grunts] [Keith and Buki laugh] - [Buki] And with the spirit of the ancestors guiding our journey, we were off and paddling.

[upbeat music] - Hoo!

Good.

Switch over.

Good.

♪ We don't know where to go ♪ We never needed anything - Good.

- How's my form, Keith?

How's my form?

- Looking good.

We just wanna make sure that we stay in time.

Well I don't know why you're splashing me though, Keith.

- Trying to wake you up.

Everyone's trying to wake up.

- [Buki] Here are a few tips for your next outrigging adventure.

Always lean to your left, listen to your captain.

Splashing your neighbor is always encouraged and don't forget to look up and take in the views.

[upbeat music continues] ♪ My, my, my - Paddles up.

Alright, how do you feel?

- I'm leaning left.

- Leaning left is good.

- Leaning left, taking in this incredible view.

- You get rewards like this where you know no one gets this view, especially from the middle of the water.

It changes all the time.

I mean, it's like different conditions, different seasons, different times of day.

Every time it's a little bit different and every time it's really magical.

So, it's what keeps me coming back.

- [Buki] You guys go miles and miles and miles in this little canoe.

- Yes.

- So the camaraderie must be serious.

I mean, everyone in here must be a bestie.

- And that's the amazing thing.

It's like we probably get along better inside the canoe than we do outside of it sometimes.

We have sort of this rule that once you're in the canoe, like you're all together.

We're all one.

We have a mission, we have a thing to do, and that's to get to where we need to go.

- I mean, this is not how it was when the ancestors first developed this, but what do you think the ancestors would say about the fact that you all have kept it going for generation after generation after generation?

- You know, we're trying to really bring its original concepts back.

It's an island culture, it's a paddling culture.

You know, it's a means of survival, but it's a means of connecting to other people.

And so that's something that we're trying to do at Ke Aloha Outrigger, where even if we're just paddling across the river and we're, you know, going to another boathouse or anything like that, it's about that engagement and about sort of feeling like you're part of this bigger community.

- [Buki] After soaking up the skyline, it was time to head back to the cove.

- Let's get the boat moving back in time.

Hoo!

- I felt that splash, Keith.

- It's a water sport, Buki.

Much deserved food at the end of this.

- Well, I don't know if my arms could pick up anything at this point.

- [Keith] That's okay.

There'll be plenty of people to force feed you, I'm sure.

All the aunties out there will be like, "Eat this, eat this.

Try this."

- There's an auntie in every culture.

- [Keith] Hey, some things are just universal.

- So true.

Hawaiians are famous for being good hosts.

And I certainly felt welcome by this spread.

But before we ate, Kahu Oli, Kris Kato sang a gratitude chant, blessing the food.

[people singing in Hawaiian] - Whoo.

Yeah.

[people applauding] - Now let's eat.

- Now let's eat.

- Before I could chow down, Keith and Yoon-jee gave me a traditional lei.

Now it's a party.

Let me tell you something about Ke Aloha.

This group is just as passionate about their food as they are about their outrigging.

Member after member wanted me to taste their authentic Polynesian creations.

There was teriyaki chicken, musubi, spring rolls, tofu poke, lomilomi salmon.

And that was only a nibble of this bountiful spread.

Hawaiian food truly is a blend of delicious influences from all around this world.

The seedweed's delicious, the seedweed's the best part.

- It is.

I brought it back from Hawaii.

- You brought it straight back from Hawaii, fresh!

The paddler who was farthest from home was Ilona who shared traditional talautu, a passion fruit drink from Papua New Guinea.

- That's got coconut water, the meat of the young coconut, pineapple, red papaya and mint.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Ooh.

Oh, that's good.

That's good.

Who needs a cocktail when you have this?

Nohea and Kamalei are sisters whose mother is from Hawaii.

They told me why they love bringing the Hawaiian spirit to the east coast.

- The Hawaiian culture is based very much around family.

So even folks who are outside of your family, you can call auntie and uncle or brother and sister.

There's just so much aloha and love when we get together.

- It's just really special to have such a big community here.

And it's definitely been growing over the the past few years and especially since we were kids, and see it now it's just bigger and brighter and it's just so exciting to have so many people here.

- Well, I have definitely felt the love today.

I have felt the food.

It may be raining, but it's bright and sunny in my heart right now.

- Absolutely.

- [Buki] A couple of clouds and a little drizzle couldn't dampen the spirit of Polynesia.

No gathering is complete without music and hula.

[singers singing in Hawaiian] [singers continue singing in Hawaiian] [people applauding and cheering] The band along with Roberta and her hula hulao dancers were the real deal.

[singer singing in Hawaiian] [singer continues singing in Hawaiian] The Hawaiian word ohana means family, but more importantly, those you choose to call family and is the human circle of complete aloha or unconditional love.

[singer singing in Hawaiian] And that's what the members of Ke Aloha represent.

A celebration of tradition, a preservation of culture, and a place where anyone who enters is treated like family.

All from a little cove in Hoboken.

[crowd cheering and applauding] Someone once said, if there's magic on this planet, it's contained in water.

And after meeting Tim and Todd, Kim, Emilie, Jonathan, Keith, and the Hoboken outrigging family, I would have to agree.

Every one of these people has found purpose, livelihood, and a way to preserve history, culture, and tradition.

All while making sure one of our most valuable resources has a chance to be here for the next generation, looking for meaning and to make an impact in and on the water.

The Hawaiians had it right.

The waters are truly a wonderful way to connect us all.

♪ It's gonna get better, ♪ Better all the time [bright music] [bright music]