Dive into the latest episode of **Our Ocean Table**, where we explore the fascinating world beneath the waves. This installment delves into the vital role of marine ecosystems and the urgent need for their conservation.
Discover the intricate connections within ocean life and understand the delicate balance that sustains our planet's blue heart. We uncover groundbreaking research and innovative solutions aimed at protecting these invaluable natural resources for future generations.
Learn about the challenges facing our oceans, from pollution to climate change, and the collective efforts being made to address them. Gain insights into sustainable practices and how individuals can contribute to safeguarding marine biodiversity.
This episode offers a compelling look at the future of our oceans and the critical importance of proactive stewardship. Prepare to be informed and inspired by the wonders of the marine world.
#OceanConservation #MarineLife #OceanScience
Discover the intricate connections within ocean life and understand the delicate balance that sustains our planet's blue heart. We uncover groundbreaking research and innovative solutions aimed at protecting these invaluable natural resources for future generations.
Learn about the challenges facing our oceans, from pollution to climate change, and the collective efforts being made to address them. Gain insights into sustainable practices and how individuals can contribute to safeguarding marine biodiversity.
This episode offers a compelling look at the future of our oceans and the critical importance of proactive stewardship. Prepare to be informed and inspired by the wonders of the marine world.
#OceanConservation #MarineLife #OceanScience
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:07This is our food table.
00:09Seafood is the foundation of so many of our favorite dishes.
00:14And we love eating.
00:17Oh my god! Gorgeous.
00:20I'm Sonya. I'm a filmmaker and ocean nerd.
00:24I live on Vancouver Island and my favorite place is underwater.
00:29I'm Hannah. I'm a journalist and producer in Toronto.
00:33And I was a reporter on MuchMusic in the 2000s.
00:36Have you ever had anything live from the ocean like this before?
00:40Oh, we've heard material.
00:43Koreans around the world are tied to the ocean through food.
00:48But overfishing and climate change threaten our oceans.
00:51What does it mean for our culture if our favorite foods disappear?
00:56Together, we're traveling across Western Canada to meet the harvesters and chefs behind some of the most iconic Korean dishes.
01:04Dive in as we learn more about the science, sustainability, and culture behind our favorite foods.
01:10Welcome to our ocean table.
01:19When I think of Korean food, I think seafood.
01:23Bubbling soups and stews with shrimp and seaweed and oysters.
01:27Many Koreans use oysters in savory pancakes and soups and also eat them raw.
01:33I've eaten a lot of oysters in Korea.
01:36They're as Korean as...
01:38Fried chicken?
01:39Cheers!
01:40Cheers!
01:41Okay.
01:42I guess when I think about Korean food, I also think chicken.
01:45But if fried chicken is Korean food, the same way oysters are Korean food, what is Korean?
01:53Koreans love fried chicken.
01:55But is it Korean food?
01:57What is considered Korean food?
02:00What is authentic?
02:01What is traditional?
02:02And not only for food, but also, am I Korean?
02:06Am I Canadian?
02:07I don't feel Korean enough, but I'm also like, eh.
02:11So I was born in Korea.
02:12My family immigrated to Canada when I was six.
02:14The only way I knew how to survive was really downplay my Korean-ness.
02:21All I wanted to do was fit in.
02:24I was born in Canada, in Toronto.
02:28I was able to integrate into Canadian society in a way that my mom really wanted for me to do.
02:34I think there's a classic story about Asian kids not wanting to take their food to school
02:40because people would say their lunch is stinky.
02:43My mother did not want me to take some food to school that would be deemed stinky.
02:48My mom also stopped putting garlic in our kimchi.
02:52She did not want us to go to school with garlic breath.
02:55I think that adapting your foods is about survival.
02:59Moving to Canada means adapting Korean food to Western palates.
03:03But also adapting Western food to Korean palates.
03:09Korean fried chicken is my favorite example of this.
03:12And oysters are an example too.
03:14When my mom immigrated from Korea, she would use local oysters to make our dishes taste more like home.
03:21Oysters are a shellfish that start their lives as tiny swimming creatures.
03:26Then they settle on the ocean floor where they filter water for food and live for the rest of their
03:32lives.
03:33Aquaculture in BC gets a bad reputation from open net salmon farming that has impacted our wild salmon stocks.
03:41But can oyster farms change the narrative of aquaculture on the West Coast?
03:45Have you ever been on an oyster farm?
03:48I don't know what that means, an oyster farm. I just know that I like to eat them.
03:52I'm excited to find out. Let's go to the island.
03:56I am an Ontario gal, but I spend a lot of time on the West Coast because it's where my
04:00husband's family is.
04:02I'm actually very familiar with Fanny Bay oysters as oysters that I eat, but that was all I knew about
04:08them.
04:14Do you want to lead the way?
04:16All right.
04:18This is just a little access path to one of our farms.
04:21I like your commute.
04:23It's very West Coast.
04:26So what you're looking at is a freshly laid bed of oyster seed.
04:33So what we think is a beach is actually a farm field.
04:38We treat it like a farm field, absolutely.
04:41What kind of oysters are these?
04:44That's a Pacific oyster, Chrysostria gigus.
04:46How long did it take for it to get to this size?
04:50That's about a one-year-old oyster at this point.
04:54How old does it have to be by the time you harvest it?
04:57That's going to be another nine months from now.
04:59I'll let this one grow.
05:00Have fun, grow nice and pretty.
05:03Can we see an oyster ready for market?
05:05Sure, we can take a look at some.
05:07And how many of your oysters are on this beach?
05:11On the three tenures in Ships Point, it's well over 100,000 dozen.
05:15I can't do that math.
05:171.2 million.
05:18Whoa!
05:191.2 million oysters here.
05:22$5 a dozen.
05:23Still can't do that math.
05:25So you were wondering about market size oysters,
05:28so that patch of seed in six to nine months
05:31is going to look something like those.
05:32Mmm.
05:33Whoa.
05:34Wait, this gets to be this in only nine months?
05:39Wow.
05:40This is considered aquaculture?
05:42Yes.
05:42Aquaculture on this coast gets a bad reputation
05:45and I feel like not all aquaculture is made the same.
05:49I'd have to agree with you with that.
05:51There are big differences between, say, salmon pens
05:54and broadcast oysters on the beach.
05:56There's not a lot of detritus coming out of this.
05:59There's few inputs, there's no antibiotics.
06:02We do do a fairly intensive monoculture, somewhat contained,
06:07and we're using beaches that are underutilized by other species.
06:12Winter storms will move them around, we'll pick them up,
06:14get them back to where we want them.
06:16And other than that, you're collecting the essence of the ocean.
06:19You're really kind of eating the ocean when you're eating an oyster.
06:22The ocean's health truly is about our health,
06:25and our health is about the ocean's health too.
06:27The oyster is such a perfect microcosmic item,
06:30food, animal, to let us know that.
06:33So the species of oysters is not actually native to this coast?
06:37That's correct.
06:38One might think that it's a problem to have a, you know,
06:41introduced species all along a beach.
06:43Can you tell me if there is an impact?
06:46My understanding of the potential impacts of Pacific oysters in B.C. are minimal.
06:51They were introduced to B.C. waters from Japan in the 1920s and 30s,
06:58and they spawn naturally in B.C. waters now.
07:01The Pacific oyster is the largest percentage of cultured oysters in the world.
07:08Would you say that this location is one of the locations where it's been bred the longest?
07:12Places like Korea and Japan, they've been culturing oysters for centuries now.
07:18Our people.
07:20That's why we think it's so delicious.
07:22And yet we're learning from you. I love it.
07:24I think it's pretty incredible to learn that these oysters originally came from my people.
07:29They're immigrant oysters.
07:30I love that.
07:32Can we taste one right off the beach?
07:35We'll pick an easy one here for you.
07:37Yeah, okay.
07:39Oh, I messed up.
07:40Slice it.
07:42Yeah.
07:42Ta-da.
07:44You got it.
07:45Would you hire me?
07:45Pretty good.
07:50Mmm.
07:55Briny.
07:57That's delicious.
07:59Thank you, oyster.
08:02How do you feel about us stepping on your oysters?
08:06Once they get to this size, they're fairly robust.
08:10They can take a little bit of foot traffic.
08:11They are surprisingly resilient animals.
08:15There's something comforting to learn that the oysters my mom used to make our meals feel more Korean are the
08:21same species we ate in Korea.
08:23These oysters also had to adapt and survive from the other side of the Pacific.
08:29With the resilient outer shell and an ocean-y inside, these oysters are a perfect metaphor for the immigrant experience.
08:41The more I look to the ocean, the more I learn what it means to be Korean.
08:49When I first immigrated, you know, like...
08:53Get it!
08:54Get it!
08:56It's such a juicy mosquito!
08:59Oh, you got it!
09:00Yay!
09:03Growing up with my Korean family friends, I was always told like, why are you studying marine biology?
09:08It's not a very Korean thing to do.
09:11When did you first learn about the hainyo?
09:13Hanyo are ocean-harvesting women, primarily on Jeju Island.
09:17These women are freedivers, who can hold their breath for many minutes to harvest for seafood, like abalone, sea snails,
09:24octopus, and other shellfish.
09:26This harvesting tradition is decreasing in Korea, because most of the hainyo are seniors.
09:32But all of them are badass Korean women.
09:34It was so exciting to learn that there are other Korean women freediving in the ocean.
09:40What they do is so connected to the earth and an ancient way of doing things that is just naturally
09:49sustainable,
09:50because it doesn't come from a capitalist, industrial way of feeding ourselves.
09:55They just have this extreme, like, confident ajumma energy.
10:00That's what I want.
10:02I want confident ocean ajumma energy.
10:04Oh my gosh, yeah.
10:05That's all I want.
10:08We're back in Vancouver to try our local oysters at a Korean restaurant.
10:15At Jinmi, Chef Jay is balancing tradition and adaptation with a menu that mixes imported Korean seafood with some that
10:23is Canadian, harvested locally.
10:25We've covered the difference in the house.
10:26First, it's famous as a fanny bay oyster.
10:29It's very popular.
10:31So it's very good.
10:32I want to add some fresh ingredients and feel to be a fusion.
10:37I just wanted to ike the oil ahimura.
10:40But in the meantime, with the oil of the oil, we made some of that,
10:46I had a one-time pan.
10:52First, we made a local units.
10:54We made a local unit with oilater.
10:54I'm going to make it creamy and cook it in the oven.
11:00This is the menu of Fanny Bay.
11:03I'm going to fry it in the menu.
11:07I'm going to make it with Korean potatoes.
11:11I'm going to make it with the oven.
11:13I'm going to eat well.
11:24Okay, I want this whole row.
11:26We just get another whole row.
11:28It's a very interesting take on traditional Korean flavors.
11:31Like the idea of a Korean pesto on top is very cool.
11:47A fusion dish like this is a way for Chef Jay to introduce Korean seafood flavors to Canadian palates,
11:53using Canadian ingredients.
11:57But the real star of this restaurant is a Korean dish I've never tried before.
12:02Ganjang kyejang, which is a raw crab marinated for 48 hours in a house-made soy sauce.
12:09This wasn't a part of my own family's food growing up,
12:12so the first time I ever saw it was when Sonia sent it to me on social media.
12:18We've come a long way from when my mom had to make our food publicly accepted.
12:25Now, restaurants like Jinmi can serve food that is Korean, unapologetically.
12:32So when I lived in Korea, my very vivid memories is just like eating seafood, and one of them is
12:37this.
12:38My grandma used to make this at home.
12:40This version and like a spicy sauce version.
12:43I haven't had it since I was six.
12:46I don't think I've had it since I was six.
12:47I don't think I'd like to use local food, but I don't like it in Canada.
12:50I eat a lot of blue crab in Canada.
12:53It's too small and it's so tight.
12:56It's too tight and it's too tight.
12:57If we think we're going to eat a fish sauce,
12:59we're going to eat a fish sauce in the mouth and we're going to eat it.
13:04It's hard to express it.
13:06You do the Instagram squeeze thing.
13:08Me?
13:08Yeah.
13:10I'm nervous.
13:12Okay.
13:13Yeah.
13:14All right.
13:14Are you ready?
13:15Yes.
13:16Cheers.
13:17I thought the fish sauce was the most useful.
13:24So I thought it was hard to buy from Korea and it was to mix it up.
13:31Mmm.
13:32Oh my God.
13:34Wow.
13:35What do you think?
13:36It tastes like the ocean.
13:37It tastes like my childhood.
13:39Mmm.
13:40It's so sweet.
13:41Mm-hmm.
13:43There's a lot of flavors happening over time in my mouth.
13:45If it weren't for you, I would never have heard of this dish.
13:51Very good. I approve.
13:55What do you think of Korean food?
14:18What do you think of Korean food?
14:21What do you think of Korean food?
14:22What do you think of Korean food?
14:25At Chef Jay's restaurant, we could taste the ancestral connection.
14:30For the first time since my childhood, I could taste my 할머니's crab.
14:37I was told my ocean career made me not Korean.
14:41But the ocean runs deeply through our bodies, through our ancestral history and food.
14:46Even though I'm learning that caring about the ocean is actually a very Korean thing to do,
14:52I still have never been in the water with another Korean woman.
14:55So I actually love being in the water. I love swimming.
14:59But I have never done any diving.
15:02When she started to bring up, would you like to dive?
15:05I thought, is this required?
15:07What does it mean to dive? Am I capable?
15:10I'm capable.
15:12It's like getting into your worst formal palm dress, but even worse.
15:18Oh no.
15:20Oh yeah, this smells.
15:21Oh my god.
15:22It's extremely cozy, like oppressively cozy.
15:28You look like a henna.
15:30That's cute.
15:32Let's see what happens when I get in the water.
15:34Can I tell you my nightmare?
15:35Yeah.
15:36It's that, um, a little piece of seaweed wraps around my ankle.
15:40Just pretend it's like a little nice hug from my coat.
15:43Not scary. Nice hug.
15:45Not scary.
15:46But I think it's okay. You're allowed to be nervous.
15:48Okay. Let's get in.
15:50Okay. Yeah.
15:51Yeah.
15:52Yeah.
15:53Oh my god.
15:53I need to take a breath before I do that.
15:59Mommy's stressing me.
16:03Let's go again.
16:04Ready?
16:04One, two, three.
16:06One, two, three.
16:13You okay?
16:14Woo!
16:17It's cold.
16:19Confirming.
16:20She was so nervous about going in the water.
16:24I think she was lying because she got in the water and she was so comfortable.
16:31And it made me feel so good that she was such a natural at it.
16:37Being underwater felt so freeing.
16:41The kelp was so beautiful.
16:45It felt like why have I not explored this realm?
16:51If only everybody could do that.
16:55Being underwater like this was the highlight of the entire journey.
16:59I felt so free and connected to the ocean and curious about the kelp and creatures around me.
17:09And how cool to see Sonia gathering urchins and harvesting.
17:15Maybe Sonia wouldn't agree with me, but in my eyes, she's already a henyo.
17:22The notion of being Korean enough, it didn't really feel like I didn't fit the box.
17:28I felt like I didn't know what that box was.
17:32And then a few years ago, I got into BTS.
17:36I met Hannah.
17:37And around that time, I learned about Henyeol.
17:40I've been finally learning what being Korean means to me.
17:44But through that journey, I still wanted to be in the water, free diving with other Korean women.
17:50Getting to experience that with Hannah was so special.
17:55For most of my life, I felt like I was abandoning who I was as a Korean to connect to
18:00the ocean.
18:00But it turns out, connecting to the ocean connects me to being Korean.
18:30First of all, they will screen постав tr saker on me toesterol.
18:39Work for me now!
18:45On the mother's wet.
18:46And eşof waang biiru works in Korean.
18:46This is something else.
18:48These traditional plates with the stone bowl.
18:51And some riktinsi MANDO en social Spain.
18:53This is something else.
18:53With the nice view.
18:55oysters from fanny bay spa prawns in our sundubu this is my mom's miyoku you know with so much
19:04korean food becoming popular on social media like what is authentic what is traditional
19:09i think anything that korean people make and eat and enjoy is authentic whether it's like a new food
19:15trend that you know sweeping the nation of korea over the last year or something that represents
19:22countless generations as a korean person or a person of korean descent but truly i'm a canadian
19:29person i like to just call it food if i love it and i make it then it's authentically korean
19:35food too
19:35you know i think that's such a good way to put it because sometimes i don't feel like an authentic
19:41korean but you said it's a reminder to myself that i can be korean however i want to be korean
19:48i can
19:48be canadian i can be korean i can be whatever an ocean person yeah yeah i mean like growing up
19:55in
19:55the 80s in canada i was made to feel many times like i wasn't a true canadian but then there
20:01are
20:02koreans who make you feel like you're not actually korean enough i don't really think it's up to other
20:06people to tell us and if you feel korean then you are i love that to me it seems like
20:13hannah has it all
20:13figured out and through this journey i learned so much from her and it gives me the confidence
20:19to exist as a korean person in whatever way makes sense to me i'm so grateful to hannah for that
20:27korea is a peninsula it's surrounded by the ocean it's a culture and food and history you can see
20:34seafood everywhere in korea oh my god that's gorgeous korean people we are so lucky because we are really
20:41close to the ocean so we can have the fresh fish shellfish and be creative at using seaweed rather
20:49than changing my ideas on sustainability everything i've learned on this trip has been reinforcing of
20:56some bigger ideas being in the ocean seeing its abundance but how delicate the balance is i just want
21:04to keep eating as sustainably as possible and just learning more especially in conservation
21:11spaces harvesters don't necessarily have the best reputation because they're taking fish out of the
21:16ocean but they are the best ambassadors for what is actually happening on the ocean they don't want
21:24these things to go away this is their life i want to eat my favorite foods forever
21:35and i want you to eat my favorite foods forever and in order to do that we need to do
21:40a little bit
21:41better for the ocean as a whole
21:43better for the ocean i want to take a nibble
21:56wanna take a nibble
21:57i've never eaten bulkhead
22:03no
22:03no
22:05no
22:06no
22:17no
22:18no
22:20no
22:22no
22:22no
22:23no
22:30no
22:37no
22:38no
22:38no
Comments