We're done fishing -- let's grab a taxi

This offbeat show rubs elbows with characters who ply the waters of New York Harbor for relaxation, fun and sometimes a living. It's a diverse group, from rod-packing cabbie "Brother Phil" Frabosilo, who also volunteers at the Bowery Mission, to the commercial watermen who struggle to harvest the hardy striped bass, clams, albacore, horseshoe crabs and "Big Apple" bluefish that make the harbor their home.

Writer-director Robert Maass allows each of these characters their personal anecdote, recipe or philosophic point, which provides the series with great local color, but the other story here is the comeback of the habitat itself. The harbor that was once dead and toxic has been reclaimed through the Clean Water Act of 1972, and game fish stocks are now back up to decent levels. While nothing like it was 40 years ago, New York Harbor, long infamous as a body dump, is once again a lively resource for the urban angler -- and raconteur.

-- Michael Koehn