NARRATOR: Today on Weekends with Yankee, Richard meets the scientists at Cape Cod's Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to learn about the deep-sea research submersible the Alvin.

- The ecosystems in the ocean really matter for climate, for food, for transportation.

All of this matters for our daily lives.

NARRATOR: He also joins the Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage on a cleanup mission of the Cape's ponds and waterways.

- A pond is one of the last remnants of natural beauty that we have on Cape Cod.

NARRATOR: Amy meets up with chef Michael Serpa to explore the clam shacks of Massachusetts' North Shore by bike.

- Yes!

AMY TRAVERSO: More fried food!

- Fried clams all day.

NARRATOR: And Richard ends the day with a visit to Water Street Kitchen to make a delicious bass ceviche.

- We're feeding back into the vibrancy of the local community of fishermen and farmers that keep us alive.

NARRATOR: So come along with us for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before, a true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee magazine.

Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese and Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.

It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.

Weekends with Yankee.

- Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ - Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts.

The first public park in America.

The first fried clams.

The first university in America.

The first basketball game.

What's first for you?

♪ ♪ - Grady-White-- crafting offshore sport fishing boats for over 60 years.

- Country Carpenters-- handcrafted barns and homes for over 50 years.

- On an American Cruise Lines journey, you can explore historic New England.

- New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

Sandy beaches and laid-back adventure.

Relax already.

♪ ♪ RICHARD WIESE: Some of the things I love best about New England are the obvious-- beautiful scenery, quaint towns, and a unique culture.

But what I'm most proud of is the concentration of learning and education.

Today I'm in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, at the world-famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

NARRATOR: The Institute is referred to as WHOI, and its contributions to science have changed the way we view our planet and its oceans.

WIESE: What are some of the things that you're researching?

- So, here at Woods Hole, we have scientists that work in climate science, we have scientists that work on... in the deep ocean, we have engineers that are building new technologies to use in the ocean.

So we have people that study all parts of the ocean, from coral reefs all the way down to the hadal zone, the very deepest parts of the ocean.

The ecosystems in the ocean really matter, coral reefs matter, all of this matters for climate, for food, for transportation, all of this matters for our daily lives.

NARRATOR: One of WHOI's most famous research vessels is the Alvin, a deep-water submarine first piloted by William Rainey in the Woods Hole Harbor.

WIESE: So how old is Alvin and what kind of technological magic or advance was that in deep sea diving?

- In 1964 was the first time that Alvin was built and used.

We've been celebrating recently the 60th anniversary of Alvin.

And it was a technological advance because we could bring people down to the deep sea.

- I think science is exactly the expression of, of what humans do.

When you're a kid you go out in the yard-- you don't know you're an explorer, you are.

You don't know you're a scientist, you are.

Well, I knew about Woods Hole when I was younger and I knew about Alvin when I was younger.

I followed it in National Geographic and I was always excited by it.

I think it's a reflection of what humans are good at, which is taking technology, taking our knowledge, and exploiting it to build really interesting things, to do really amazing things.

So this is one of Alvin's three personnel spheres.

This is the second one.

The first one was steel.

This one came along in about 1971.

WIESE: This looks claustrophobically small if you're saying people go inside.

- Three of us.

WIESE: Three of you in there?

- It's not even-- it's not six foot tall.

So when I got in here and stood up, I could only stand straight up if the hatch was open.

I've been diving with Alvin a little over 400 dives.

The sub in general is kind of this funny-looking, 23-foot-long device with all the different pieces on the outside that make it move, right?

And then in the front end is where the people go, and that's a sphere.

You can't tell it's metal when you're inside because what you're looking at is a lot like a spacecraft.

It's got high-tech equipment everywhere, it's got life support equipment in the back.

It has the equivalent of a small television studio built in on the sides.

It's very high tech.

NARRATOR: In 1986, Alvin and a small remotely operated vehicle named Jason made a historic discovery which captured the public's imagination.

- One of the more famous scientists that was at WHOI was Bob Ballard, who found the Titanic.

In the 1980s, 1990s, Bob Ballard ran a program called the Jason Project.

He also took students out on research cruises.

and I was chosen in high school to go to the Galapagos Islands.

That moment is what made me become an ocean scientist.

NARRATOR: Bruce has piloted Alvin into active underwater volcanoes and canyons, discovering hydrothermal vents teeming with life in the Pacific.

- I was fortunate enough to have a fish named after me.

It's a hagfish, which is a carrion eater.

It eats the rotten dead things on the bottom, which I think is appropriate.

And it's a vertebrate, so it has a backbone, right?

They're often attracted by our activity, they're attracted by the light, and if we're collecting samples and you get a little, a sort of sample in the water, the fish will come over.

We enable the opportunities for people to have a life-altering experience and to use that to tell a bigger and deeper story about what's going on on the planet.

NARRATOR: The WHOI Discovery Center is a place where people can learn more about how science impacts our lives.

Richard gets a chance to sit inside an Alvin exhibit.

- Do you want to get in?

WIESE: Yeah!

- So the pilot sits in the middle, so that'll be your viewport.

WIESE: Okay.

- It's a little bit squishy.

You're gonna have to turn around, because you want to look out.

WIESE: Oh, look out the window.

- Because you've got to drive the sub.

You can imagine, there'd be two observers sitting with you, so there'll be three of you.

WIESE: I mean, as long as you're good with small spaces... it's, you know, it's perfectly comfortable.

♪ ♪ - So, we're looking here at what you might see when you're at a hydrothermal vent.

You can see the tube worms, you can see there's a lot of other biological critters living here.

And so you can imagine what it would be like to be in the sub and looking out that port hole.

Here's Atlantis.

This is the mothership for Alvin.

So, Alvin only ever goes on Atlantis.

And... it lives in this little, you can see this little-- the garage door opens there.

And so, wherever Atlantis is, Alvin is.

What we're looking at here is Shark Cam.

We know people are really fascinated by sharks.

WIESE: People are really fascinated by sharks.

- Really fascinated.

I think the important thing here is people are using new technologies to be able to study things like sharks, and that's what we're seeing here.

- (indistinct radio chatter) - I think the impact that I see with the science is what I'm proud of.

Keeping the program going and, and working the program, so that we can hand it off to other people.

We inherited it from people who kept it going.

So it's our responsibility.

We look at ourselves as protectors of the, of the program, as curators of the legacy.

NARRATOR: Helping to understand the oceans is the work of dedicated scientists at WHOI.

Next, meet a group of women who swim to preserve the environment, removing trash from the waters of Cape Cod one pond at a time.

They're known as the Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage.

WIESE: I know you're old enough to be my older sister.

- I'm 84, I'm really old.

I'm old enough to be your mother, practically.

(Wiese laughs) What you've got to understand is that the group that we have here are all athletes in their way.

The people who have the habit of exercise actually don't age in the same way that other people do.

So yes, we've got the arthritis, and yes, this person has a, a replaced hip, and that person has had cancer, but we're very vigorous.

WIESE: So, how did you come up with the idea that you were going to be against underwater garbage and had the audacity to call yourself an old lady?

- It was really hard for me to get all the way around a pond, but if there was trash in it, I would use it sort of as markers, and so I would swim to the beer can, and then swim to the golf ball.

And if I was really brave, I'd get all the way around to the washing machine.

And one day I was just swimming around, and I thought, "Ah, let's get rid of this stuff."

So we grabbed a random kayaker who was standing nearby and collected like three quarters of a bushel of trash.

I mean, nothing.

Nothing compared to the hundreds of pounds that we get now.

And somebody said, "Oh, we're a bunch of old ladies," the three of us.

"We're a bunch of old ladies against underwater garbage."

And that part stuck.

NARRATOR: They refer to themselves as OLAUG for short, and are 64 to 84 years young.

To date, they have cleaned up over 900 ponds on Cape Cod.

- We're all very committed to nature and to the environment and to keeping it cleaned up.

I mean, we-- we've all have our aches and pains here and there, but for some reason, you seem to forget it once you get in the water.

WIESE: What are we going to do today?

- We are going to have two teams.

One's going to go down the right side of the pond, one down the other side of the pond, and we're going to collect whatever garbage we've got.

And we have scouted, of course, and we've got some unusual things that we've seen.

You need to swim a mile, because you need to be able to, to be in the water and be comfortable for 60 to 90 minutes.

I have swimmers who can do two miles, ba-bam, ba-bam.

NARRATOR: Since Richard has not been certified to swim with OLAUG, Susan makes him part of the kayaking team.

- The person who's there to collect the trash is, number one, looking to make sure their swimmers are safe, and always being around them-- close enough to help them, but not so close you're going to hit them in the head with your paddle.

(Wiese laughs) So that's the thing that's important, and, uh, just being really in tune with where they are and what they're doing.

And when they're going down to get something, that's your cue to get closer, because they're going to come up with something.

NARRATOR: From old car tires and bricks to beer cans and sand toys, the work can be challenging.

- We know that you must wear a glove.

You're dealing with broken glass, you're dealing with fish hooks.

We know how many swimmers a kayak can serve, and how many they can't serve.

And if you're a beginner kayak, you need one swimmer, not three.

- Got it.

- I like diving.

I like... going down and getting the garbage off the bottom and finding something new every time.

It's a treasure hunt.

- Beautiful.

- It makes you feel like you're a kid.

- Three, two... - Two.

- Two.

Michelob!

- We wade out of the pond feeling better.

Not only are we proud that we've taken garbage out of the pond and hopefully helped the turtles and the fish.

We're very aware that this is its own world.

We visit another world every time we do this.

(splashing) - If you see something out there that sounds interesting and you're afraid to do it, push yourself, and just try it, because you might find out you really, really love it.

NARRATOR: The women of OLAUG are a sisterhood who have embraced aging with a purpose.

They work to protect nature and find adventure and joy in their work.

WIESE: You're removing a big, hazardous piece of trash.

- A lot of nails.

WIESE: A lot of nails.

- Yeah.

WIESE: But maybe the best part is, I was listening to you guys laughing the whole way back, which equals happiness and fun.

(laughter) - Yeah.

WIESE: That's pretty cool.

- That's pretty cool.

- It is fun.

♪ ♪ WIESE: I think this is a minnow trap.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

WIESE: This is a plastic fishing worm.

This is a measuring cup.

- Yeah.

WIESE: This is a beer can.

Here's a golf ball, here's a... (clattering) Oh.

- And... (tambourine jingling) Ah!

(laughs) WIESE: If this pond could talk.

(clattering) WIESE: Well, that's a good haul.

I've never seen somebody so enthusiastic about picking up trash.

This is so impressive.

It gives me joy and optimism of the world to see you guys doing what you do and having so much fun.

- And having so much fun.

- Thank you.

- It's a better way to be happy.

WIESE: Yeah, it's a better way to be happy.

- What's... what's the active ingredient?

Wonder.

Gratitude.

Awe.

Because if you think of it, a pond is one of the last remnants of natural beauty that we have on Cape Cod.

And it makes us happy.

It makes us better people.

We wade out of a pond happier, better, and more empathetic.

♪ ♪ TRAVERSO: If you love fried clams, you're going to want to follow this adventure.

I'm on the North Shore of Boston, where they harvest some of the most delicious clams in the world.

And I'm meeting up with chef Michael Serpa, who owns two seafood restaurants in Boston, one of which-- Little Whale-- is an ode to the classic New England clam shack.

We're going to be riding around this beautiful coastline and tasting some truly delicious fried clams.

NARRATOR: Michael Serpa is the chef of Little Whale in Boston's Back Bay.

It's an ode to the clam shacks and raw bars of New England.

Before opening the restaurant, Michael did his research in an unusual way-- on the two wheels of his bicycle.

He's an avid cyclist who has biked all over the world.

TRAVERSO: Tell me about how you combine biking with food.

- You know, I've ridden in Spain, in Italy, in France, like all over the place.

But one thing that we like to do here is sort of like, cafes along the way.

The beauty of riding, you can really kind of experience those amazing towns and regions and countries.

And you know, I've been to France, I've done the tour stages, I've done Alpe d'huez.

Wherever the good food is, we'll find it.

And, you know, you burn off all the calories on the way and the way back.

(Traverso laughs) TRAVERSO: How did you come up with this idea of researching fried clams by biking around Cape Ann?

- It's different when you're on a bike, and it's a Hemingway thing.

It's like, the best way to see the world is on a bike.

TRAVERSO: Mm.

- It's like you're a little bit faster than walking, you're slower than car, you get to see a little bit more at the right speed.

Everywhere you look, you're like, "This is amazing."

♪ ♪ Ipswich is really, really special.

There's a lot of little hidden pockets, cool neighborhoods, marshes.

You can see like Plum Island is right over here, Rockport is right over there.

So it's pretty... it's pretty fun to explore, and, you know, the food's pretty good, too.

(Traverso laughs) A lot of clams to be eaten on the North Shore.

♪ ♪ So we're riding over to the Clam Box in Ipswich.

It's one of the classics, you know, it looks like a box of clams.

It's kind of cool.

Yeah, it's just one of the old school, super, super famous clam spots.

NARRATOR: For over four decades, this family-owned restaurant has drawn seafood lovers to its iconic setting in Ipswich.

Meet Johanna Aggelakis of the Clam Box.

- The building was originally built as an ice cream box.

It was a pet project for the owner's wife, Dick Greenleaf.

It quickly became the Clam Box as they realized we're in Ipswich and we have the best clams in the world.

The Clam Box is a national landmark.

We have people who come from all over the world to eat our food.

My mother-in-law purchased the business in 1984, and she ran it as a single mother.

My husband grew up mopping the floors, and she sent him off as a child to shuck clams and deliver seafood so he could really harness and understand the inner workings of the business.

TRAVERSO: What makes the clams here the best in the world?

- Ipswich clams are a delicacy.

They are harvested in Ipswich.

They are shucked in Ipswich, and they are served in Ipswich, and this all happens within about a 20-hour period.

Fresh oil is absolutely key.

We use a mixture of pastry flour and corn flour only.

We have one gentleman who comes 6,000 miles from Hawaii every year, to buy a T-shirt-- and of course eat the clams, but I think it's home to people.

This town was built on clamming.

The clammers are out there, and they're digging and harvesting these clams that, you know, we'll be serving to you today.

TRAVERSO: These look really good.

- Yeah, they look amazing.

Nice way to start the day.

TRAVERSO (laughing): It's true.

Breakfast of champions.

- Have to ride, ride-- ride it off later.

(Traverso laughs) - Beautiful.

Clam Box is so famous.

So, it was probably the first spot where I had fried clams, was here.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

So you grew up in the restaurant business, right?

- Yep, so, you know, I grew up... third generation restaurants.

My grandfather owned restaurants.

My dad owned restaurants.

TRAVERSO: What kind of restaurant did your family have?

- So my family's Cuban.

TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.

- So it was like a pretty casual Cuban restaurant.

It was fun, it was cool to like, see that and learn how to cook all that food.

TRAVERSO: There's some more clams for us to try.

- I know, I'm starving.

(Traverso laughs) I want more.

J.T.

Farnham's in Essex is sort of like the hidden gem.

You know, it's not big and flashy.

It's not Woodman's, it's not kind of as well-known as the Clam Box, but it's someplace that I've always found has really, really good fried clams.

So I like to kind of bring people there.

NARRATOR: J.T.

Farnham's in Essex is a clam shack known for its seafood with a view.

Filled with old world charm, it serves up fresh local catch daily.

TRAVERSO: What's the secret to making delicious fried clams?

- (chuckles) Our secret is the... the clams that we use.

Smaller bellies.

TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.

- It seems to be tender and sweeter.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

- Wilson's brother started.

Been owned by a separate family.

And then we bought it two years ago.

TRAVERSO: Oh, okay.

What's your favorite thing on the menu?

- My favorite thing?

I have to say the clams.

TRAVERSO: Yeah, yeah.

- (laughs) NARRATOR: Amy and Michael sample Farnham's secret recipe that dates back to the 1950s.

TRAVERSO: More fried food!

- Yes.

TRAVERSO (laughing): More fried food.

- Fried clams all day.

And some onion rings.

TRAVERSO: Perfect.

Well, the great salt marsh is right here, and you can't get much closer to the source.

(laughs) - That's a... pretty, pretty unique spot they have here, right on the water.

TRAVERSO: Let's taste them.

- Yeah.

TRAVERSO: Cooked perfectly.

- Yeah.

Super briny.

TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

- You know, I think they're a little seasoned.

TRAVERSO: So we've had some amazing fried clams up here.

I'm excited to go back to your restaurant now and see how you do them.

- Yeah, so, it's nice to bring a little bit of the North Shore right to Boston.

♪ ♪ So, I mean, Little Whale doesn't look like a, exactly like a North Shore clam shack, but that's sort of our vibe, we wanted to keep it casual right here in Newbury Street and, you know, we, we wanted it to feel casually elegant, where you can still feel comfortable eating fried clams and lobster rolls and getting messy.

You know, it's not too fancy of a place.

One of the things with fried clams... super important to me, is the tartar sauce.

So we use Hellmann's mayo only.

TRAVERSO: Good.

- I love Hellmann's.

I love that for lobster rolls as well.

Really, really nice kosher pickles, And then we'll chop those up, either in the food processor if you have one or you can just do it by hand.

Kind of the acid from the pickles and the kind of the crispy salty fried clams is like one of the best things in the world.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

- You know, our ratio of... of mayo to pickles is pretty... (clinking) Like, it's pretty thick.

It's pretty chunky for tartar sauce.

Just a little bit of rice vinegar in there, just kind of gives it a little something extra.

So that's our tartar sauce.

Fried clams.

whole-bellied clams, obviously, Look at that whole belly, really beautiful TRAVERSO: And these are from where we, we just were.

- And these are from Ipswich.

Yep.

So what we do is, a nice portion, milk dip.

We use a flour semolina blend.

TRAVERSO: And so how many parts flour to semolina?

- We do three parts flour, one part semolina.

When we're breading the clams, We don't want to just dump all this buttermilk in there, and, like, make it clumpy.

TRAVERSO: Right.

- Sort of want to be very gentle with them and... kind of keep them separated as much as possible.

It's a really nice, gentle toss in that blend.

Right into the fryer.

You don't want to overcook them, obviously, you want them to be just golden.

(sizzling) So shake them off a little bit here.

We always go into like a, you know, kind of fresh paper towel.

Kind of make sure we keep those nice and organized.

TRAVERSO: These are the best ones I've had so far.

They're sweet, and yet they also have that briny quality.

It's hard to get both.

- Yeah.

TRAVERSO (sighing): Oh.

- The vinegar helps too.

TRAVERSO: So plump-- oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

TRAVERSO: Having done a little bit of biking with you and tasting, I know this is the result, this delicious clam, is the result of a lot of research and time and skill, and it really paid off.

So, thank you for sharing this with us.

- Thank you.

♪ ♪ WIESE: Woods Hole, Massachusetts, is more than just a place to drive through to the ferry to Martha's Vineyard.

It also has great food.

NARRATOR: For over nine years, Water Street Kitchen has been a mainstay of fine dining.

Owners Molly and John Wilson describe their modern cuisine as a labor of love, and are dedicated to their community and its resources by the ocean.

WIESE: What does sustainability in food mean to you?

- Sustainability was definitely a big part of what we were thinking about when we were writing the menu, because it's sort of what we naturally tend towards, which is using ingredients that are, you know, well-sourced, responsibly sourced, in a way that we can be proud of.

So we're feeding back into the vibrancy of the local community of fishermen and farmers that keep us alive.

NARRATOR: Today, chef John serves up a signature black bass ceviche.

- So this is bass that we cured with a little bit of salt and sugar.

We're adding... our jalapeño, red onion, a little bit of cilantro... black sesame seeds.

WIESE: Wow, this looks great.

- And then... this is watermelon.

WIESE: And you're just going to cube that?

- Yep, same size as the fish.

WIESE: What a great taste of summer.

- Yeah, and visually it's amazing.

And then I'm going to add a marinade that is lemon juice and lime juice, and then grapefruit juice that we reduce to bring out some of the sugar.

WIESE: Take out some of the bitterness from the grapefruit.

- And then we salt it nicely.

WIESE: Coarse salt.

- Coarse salt, this is actually locally harvested from the Cape.

NARRATOR: Chef John plates the ceviche recipe beautifully, adding in the house-made chips for a nice crunch.

WIESE: Okay, as they say, the proof in the pudding is in the eating.

- All right, give it a try.

WIESE: Okay.

I'm going to try it first without the tortilla.

And I'm a ceviche lover, so let me see this.

Mm.

There are so many notes of taste in there.

The watermelon, even the jalapeño, and they all play off-- I mean, this is a wonderful dish.

It's so fresh-tasting.

- Nice.

Yeah, I like to create a balance in dishes.

WIESE: It's really fresh.

Let me try it on the chip.

(crunching) Oh, so good.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: For exclusive videos, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors and access to the Weekends with Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com, and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.

Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.

One year for $20.

Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.

- Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ - Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts.

The first public park in America.

The first fried clams.

The first university in America.

The first basketball game.

What's first for you?

♪ ♪ - Grady-White-- crafting offshore sport fishing boats for over 60 years.

- Country Carpenters-- handcrafted barns and homes for over 50 years.

- On an American Cruise Lines journey, you can explore historic New England.

- New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

17 miles of beach.

Relax already.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪