Feeling blue: 'Hope in the Water' explores the efforts to feed the planet and save its threatened water

Baratunde Thurston is always looking for adventure.

From his own traveling show, he’s willing to go the extra mile to educate audiences.

He is a guest on the three-part PBS series “Hope in the Water.”

“I appreciate stories of people making that trek and journey in making the world a better place,” Thurston says. “The series is a mix of inspiring and humbling moments. It’s a great follow-up to ‘The American Outdoors.’ This series shows us ways that we can have a good quality of life.”

Feeling blue: 'Hope in the Water' explores the efforts to feed the planet and save its threatened water

The three-part series, “Hope in the Water” begins to broadcast at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 19, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. The next two episodes will air at 8 p.m. June 26 and July 3. The series will be available to stream on the PBS app.

The three-part program is from Emmy Award and four-time James Beard Award winner chef Andrew Zimmern and his production company Intuitive Content.

The team travels the globe to discover creative solutions and breakthrough blue food technologies that could not only feed us but help save our threatened seas and fresh waterways.

The series highlights the stories of amazing innovators, aquafarmers and fishers who are working toward a sustainable future for the planet.

Celebrated environmental enthusiasts Thurston, Shailene Woodley, Martha Stewart and José Andrés reveal hidden underworlds jeopardized by climate change, irresponsible fishing and exploitation, and habitat destruction.

Thurston appears in the first episode called “The Fish in the Sea.”

The journalist travels to Puerto Rico to see a sustainable diamondback squid fishery born from the wreckage of 2017’s Hurricane Maria.

Andrés, a renowned chef and humanitarian, recounts the aftermath of the hurricane, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017.

He founded and volunteers with World Central Kitchen and prepared more than four million meals to feed hungry survivors. World Central Kitchen also provided grants to fishers to repair boats, buy new engines and rebuild their fishery.

Marine conservationist Raimundo Espinoza assisted that effort and is now helping these fishers pivot to a new and sustainable species: 60-pound diamondback squid.

The episode also features Hi’ilei Kawelo, an Indigenous fisherwoman and founder and executive director of Paepae o He‘eia in Oahu, Hawaii, who has made it her life’s work to restore an ancient fishpond filled with wild fish.

And on the Scottish Isle of Arran, two villagers, Howard Wood and Don MacNeish, beat the odds to establish the country’s only no-take zone – an area closed to fishing and now filled with abundance.

During the episode, Thurston experienced a storm while at sea.

“That storm was nuts,” he says. “You really need to see 360 degrees of it. I’ve done a lot of outdoorsy things and that storm came out of nowhere. It really added a lot to the story.”

Thurston says his experience on the series increased his respect for the people who do this daily.

“I was trying to stay loose the whole time,” he says. “I wanted to be calm like the water.”

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