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[Narrator] Coming up, the desperate search for North America's largest salamander.

[Luke McFadden] We catch a lot of crabs like this.

[Narrator] A merging of technology and tradition.

And rebuilding an underwater ecosystem.

Next.

Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

♪ ♪ [footsteps] [rev of engine] [splashing] [roar of waterfall] [splashing] [waves rushing] [hooves clopping] [beating of wings] ♪ ♪ [Narrator] Allegheny Alligator.

[swishing of water] Devil Dog.

Walking Catfish.

A notorious recluse that makes its home in the fast flowing mountain streams of Appalachia, the creature known most commonly as a Hellbender has long bewildered those who crossed its path.

What is this strange gray beast that lurks camouflaged amongst the rocks?

[Dan Feller] Hellbenders are in a group called the Giant Salamanders.

It's an ancient lineage.

That family was established before the continents broke up.

It can reach lengths of over 28 inches long.

[Narrator] But their jumbo proportions don't make them easy to spot.

It's late summer, peak breeding season for the Hellbender.

And Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist, Dan Feller, is on the hunt in Western Maryland's Casselman River.

[Feller] The Eastern Hellbender, its range is from southern New York to northern Alabama in the eastern United States.

But within that range, it's fairly uncommon.

[Narrator] In Maryland, it's endangered, which is why DNR has been tracking the state's Hellbender population for decades.

[Feller] We searched intensively in the late 90's and we lifted thousands of rocks, and we marked 46 individuals.

And that's a very small number, not what this river should be supporting.

Okay, 10 in length.

And then we redid that study in the early 2000's.

We found that numbers were even lower.

[Narrator] This is round three.

These days instead of flipping rocks, which can disrupt important habitat, DNR monitors populations by checking nest boxes.

[Dr. Rich Raesly] You want to plug the opening up there.

[Narrator] Built by Dr. Rich Raesly and his students at nearby Frostburg State University.

[Dr. Raesly] It's a poured concrete box.

The entrance for Hellbenders at the downstream end.

The chamber of the box is covered by a large lid, which allows researchers to simply lift the lid, look inside to see if the box is occupied.

[Narrator] A simple design that replicates the Hellbender's preferred nesting habitat, cavities under large rocks.

[Dr. Raesly] We manufactured just over 50 boxes.

The majority of them have been placed in the Casselman.

[Narrator] Where they'll remain waiting for one of these fully aquatic amphibians to take up residence.

So far, no luck.

Like many threatened species, Maryland's Hellbender is the victim of the changing landscape.

What was once pristine forest land, chipped away bit by bit throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to make room for agriculture, development, and coal mining.

The latter, until the 1970's, unregulated.

Highly acidic mine runoff flowing directly into the Casselman.

[Feller] Just that acidity is detrimental to a lot of aquatic life.

It changes the state of heavy metals that are in that water, and they become reactive with the gills in fish and Hellbenders.

[Narrator] Meanwhile, agriculture and development lead to increased erosion, as seen after it rains when the river runs brown.

[Dr. Raesly] It never really rained hard, but there's a substantial amount of sediment that you can see in the stream at this point.

[Narrator] This silt can smother Hellbender eggs and clog the rocky crevices that serve as breeding habitat.

Not to mention Rich and Dan's nest boxes.

[water sloshing] And while Hellbenders certainly aren't the only Casselman creature affected, they are one of the most vulnerable.

To understand why, one need only take a closer look at Hellbender anatomy at one of the few places in the state where they can still reliably be found, the Maryland Zoo.

[Danielle Regan] The Hellbender exhibit is a 150 gallon system.

We try to mimic the natural habitat as much as possible.

[Narrator] While giving guests a chance to come eye to beady eye with these aquatic oddballs and learn a little more about them through their many nicknames.

For example, Snot Otter.

[Danielle Regan] Because they have this very thick kind of mucusy coating on them.

[Narrator] Allegheny Alligator.

[Regan] Because they have a lot of very tiny teeth.

[Narrator] And perhaps oddest of all, Old Lasagna Sides.

[Regan] Hellbenders have these very large wrinkles that run across the entire length of their body.

Those wrinkles have a lot of surface area and they pick up a lot of that fast moving water, and that allows the Hellbender to breathe.

[Narrator] In other words, they breathe through their skin.

[Feller] So you know, their intake of oxygen, their exposure to chemicals is maybe a little more than some other species.

So they're a great indicator, I think, for stream health.

[Narrator] Their steady decline in Maryland doesn't bode well for the Casselman, but efforts are underway to repair some of the environmental damages of the past.

Forested buffers help mitigate sediment runoff as do conservation farming practices.

[Feller] The Bureau of Mines has been working on remediating some of the acid mine drainage problems.

[Narrator] By installing water treatment systems on active and abandoned mine lands in the Casselman Valley, according to Maryland Department of the Environment Geologist, Jeff Snyder.

[Jeff Snyder] I'd say the largest thing that our agency does when it comes to issuing mining permits is ensuring that acid mine drainage does not occur how it occurred prior to 1977.

So this mine site, currently it is the only coal mining operation in the Casselman Valley.

This site is controlled by a series of drainage structures and treatment systems that ensures that clean water discharges back to the Casselman River.

This is what is considered an active treatment system.

[Narrator] On abandoned mine lands, passive treatment systems employ limestone to raise pH from acidic to neutral, and wetlands to act as a natural filter.

And it seems to be working.

[Feller] The pH of the stream now is near neutral.

[Narrator] But is it too little, too late?

In the past year, DNR biologists have only found one Hellbender in a nesting box.

A visit to the Casselman at night when the animals are typically more active, yielded no sightings, at least not of Hellbenders.

Under normal conditions, crayfish are a staple of the Hellbender diet, but with Hellbender numbers so depleted, the tables have turned.

[Feller] The crayfish population has gotten so high that the crayfish can prey on the Hellbender eggs.

[Narrator] And speaking of eggs, Dan and his crew haven't seen signs of reproduction for a decade.

[Feller] We're not finding juveniles, we're not finding sub-adults.

We're not finding eggs.

The animals that we capture or observe these days are large adults.

[Narrator] But despite all this, Dan still sees a path forward for the Hellbender in Maryland, it's called head starting, collecting Hellbender eggs and hatching them in captivity.

[Feller] If you keep them for a few years, they're big enough that they can fend on their own and they'll have a better chance at life and then putting them back in.

We're still in those initial stages of putting out the nest boxes to try to find eggs.

And if this isn't successful, we're going to have to try something else.

We may need to go to other states, see if we can get stock from them.

So we're going to be hopeful, but we are gravely concerned.

[water sloshing] [crickets chirping] ♪ ♪ [Narrator] It's 5:00 AM, long before alarms go off for the day.

Most people haven't picked up their phones, read their emails, or opened social media.

But Luke McFadden is already heading off to work.

[Luke McFadden] I'm honestly not real tech savvy, believe it or not.

[soft hum of boat motor] [Narrator] The calming, serene Chesapeake Bay is Luke's office, the crabs that live below the surface his job.

♪ ♪ The repetition of crabbing his life and identity.

[Luke McFadden] My fifth grade yearbook, it says under my name that I want to be a crabber when I grow up.

[Narrator] In a trade steeped in tradition, Luke stands out.

He's first generation, a young man fighting his way into an old boy's club.

The average age for commercial license holders is 59.

[Crabber] I see probably maybe two light crabs, if that.

[Narrator] Luke started working on the water at 12, bought his own boat at 21.

He's now 26.

[Luke] It's definitely a little different.

I think I'm the only kid from my graduating class that became crabber.

[Narrator] It's a shrinking, some say dying, industry.

Luke's youthful insight and incredible work ethic, and a little bit of technology, are a buoy.

[Luke] We catch a lot of crabs like this.

I have never caught one- You want to chase some around the yard.

Bring crabs, ain't got none.

[Narrator] Luke is what's called a social media influencer, even though he hates that term.

His app of choice, TikTok.

[Luke] So my uh, hot water heater quit working.

[Narrator] The 26 year old has more than 1.2 million followers.

He routinely gets hundreds of thousands of views on his videos.

Some of his videos have more than 30 million views.

[Luke] When the videographer from Maryland Public Television flies his drone and you got to land it on a boat, it's a two man operation.

[Narrator] To put that in perspective, the Nightly News on NBC gets just over 6.5 million views.

[Luke] Drone recovered.

[Narrator] Every day, Luke produces a video up to 10 minutes, but generally shorter.

Today's topic wasn't planned.

It's just something that happened to him.

[Luke] It's on my septum.

I got a piece of jellyfish in my nose, yo.

It sucks.

So when you're a crabber, you get to experience all new ways and fun kinds of suffering.

If you ain't finding new and creative ways to suffer every day, you ain't no crabber.

Existence is pain.

[banging] [Narrator] In a day's work, Luke pulls up about 500 pots from the depths of the Chesapeake.

[Luke] I said, I'll just get them all for you.

[Narrator] He does this 120 days a year.

[Luke] Today, I got to take a load of crabs up to Jimmy's after this for a bunch of people who ordered crabs yesterday from the livestream, they said.

[Narrator] In between pots, he opens the app to address his followers.

Live streaming to viewers all over the world.

[Luke] I know crabs and I'm trying to take advantage right now of the fact that I handle every crab personally.

Some of these people probably never seen a crab in real life before.

I'm showing you how to pick- [Narrator] Luke's account, named after his boat, the FV Southern Girl- [Luke] Maryland Blue crab- [Narrator] Exploded when he made a video of an origami door.

(Singing) Most of his videos chronicle his everyday life.

[Luke] If you're a true Marylander, right here, that's the good stuff.

I don't really make content.

You can fabricate content without it being fake.

It can be authentic.

But like I'm not sitting around trying to think of ideas for videos.

I just do what I do every day.

[Narrator] Making videos is not as easy as it looks.

And that is the goal for a good social media account.

♪ ♪ In addition to running his social media and crabbing, he sells his crabs at a lot he bought in Glen Burnie.

It's three full-time jobs.

[Luke] Appreciate it.

Enjoy the crabs.

[Woman] Thank you very much.

[Luke] A misconception is that I just got lucky on social media.

It is a whole 'nother grind.

I even- I answer all the- all my own phone calls.

They come, they steam them with a spice, and then I believe they also send them with additional spice.

[Narrator] But his social media is working.

Fans order his crabs from across the country.

[Luke] Two dozen smalls as well- [Narrator] And some drive hours to pick them up.

Phil and Travis drove down more than an hour from Taneytown.

-To be supportive.

-Just to support him.

-I followed him so much...I feel like I know him.

[Luke] I can't believe how excited people are, really.

It's crazy.

[Crabber] The boys got hungry.

[Narrator] But not everyone is excited by his success.

[Luke] I guess the more traditional people, a lot of them kind of resist it.

They think that I shouldn't be putting anything out on the internet and they don't want any of their secrets getting out or whatever you know.

But...

I'm not really telling anybody anything that you couldn't figure out by just going out and doing it.

Nobody wants to tell me anything.

Nobody wants to, whatever, because they think I'm going to put it all on the internet.

[CJ Canby] Hey, how come you're not putting any bait in them?

[Narrator] Nobody except CJ Canby.

CJ is Luke's mentor.

[Luke] If I had your money, I'd throw mine away.

[Narrator] Also, a first generation waterman, he hired Luke when Luke was 12.

[Luke] Must be nice, just sit here and wait around.

You just waiting for the crabs to get in the boat?

[CJ] If I don't pass on my business to these other guys, it's all just going to die.

It's going to go away and there's going to be nothing left.

He is an amazingly talented guy.

[Narrator] Luke even followed CJ into social media.

[CJ] Well, another beautiful day out here on Chesapeake Bay.

You heard it here first.

Coke the crabber.

Got a little bit where he missed the spot there.

[Luke] He started actually before I did with the social media thing, trying to get into YouTube.

You know I started doing TikTok because it was just easier, I could edit.

[CJ] Trying to open up this alien world that we work in to the rest of you know, really the world, you know especially Marylanders, because a lot of people eat crabs.

They have no idea how that crab got there.

We caught a Buffalo.

Got on it- I got a lot of pushback from the Waterman community because a lot of guys, you know are kind of fearful of opening- opening it up.

But for us and the younger generation, if we don't, it's just gonna die and go away.

[Luke] It's a new age man, you know.

It's just there's a lot of guys kind of stuck in their ways and whatever.

And I don't blame them.

I get it you know.

It is what it is but you know, there's going to be a different different- different generation of people you're going to have to sell crabs to.

[Narrator] Despite pushback.

Luke's love of the industry is palpable.

He plans to turn to activism, to merge technology and tradition and help bring life on the water to a younger generation.

[Luke] And...I want to be able to do this the rest of my life and I want my kids to have the option to do that if I have them.

But that...that takes a voice, a voice that every year is getting smaller and smaller.

You know, I'm really realizing that with this platform, you know I have a little bit more of a voice.

[Narrator] After eight hours working the water, posting his videos and hosting his livestream, this intrepid entrepreneur isn't finished.

He delivers and sells his catch, long days turn into long nights, only to wake up and do it again.

[Luke] Pretty crabs.

Don't get much nicer than that.

[Narrator] So he beats on, boat against the current, a tradition born in the past, an outlier trying ceaselessly to move it forward.

♪ ♪ A new school day begins in southern Maryland as students arrive at Huntingtown Elementary, the heart of this Calvert County community neatly nestled between the shorelines of the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River.

[water lapping] [David Sikorski] All around me- [Narrator] But class will be a little different for the fifth graders here today.

This morning they start a two day construction project.

[David Sikorski] All right, good morning everyone.

How's everybody doing today?

[Narrator] Under the direction and watchful eye of David Sikorski.

[Sikorski] You can start mixing concrete.

[Narrator] Executive Director of the Coastal Conservation Association, Maryland.

[Sikorski] Crabs love eating small oysters.

[Narrator] Together, they'll build pieces of an artificial reef.

[Sikorski] What I like to do.

I drop the shovel there and just lift it up.

[Narrator] Destined for nearby waters.

[Sikorski in background] What you don't want to do... [Sikorski] Habitat today equals fish tomorrow.

And that's good for everybody.

Working with the students, we try and explain to them that they're helping build the base of an ecosystem.

You just want to scrape.

Yup, you want to hear that scraping noise.

[Narrator] Today's task, erecting molds, mixing and pouring concrete around inflated rubber balls to create dome structures with Swiss cheese windows.

Reef balls, manmade marine habitat, most importantly for the bay's diminished oyster population, currently less than 1 percent of its historic highs due to pollution disease and over harvest.

It's all part of the school's environmental science program designed to get students outside learning about nature found in their own backyard.

[Sikorski] All right see if you can keep pushing that down there.

[Narrator] A mission that dovetails nicely with Sikorski's goals centered around the region's recreational fishery.

[Sikorski] So our main focus is habitat and advocating for a healthier Bay.

♪ ♪ [Narrator] Sikorski has coordinated the construction and placement of about 1500 reef balls throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed during the last six years.

[Sikorski] The three dimensionality of a natural oyster reef is what we're reproducing with a reef ball.

So a juvenile oyster out in nature is looking for something hard, a hard substrate or shell, ideally.

They grow on top of each other.

That's how they build a three dimensional reef.

And that's ultimately what we've broken down over time.

[Narrator] And because oysters are filter feeders, cleaning the water of excess nutrients, they aren't the only beneficiaries of an artificial reef.

[Sikorski] By making the water more clear in shallow water areas, light can penetrate, the sun, and help grow underwater grasses.

It also allows a place for things to hide.

Fish start really small and they need a place to hide.

We like them when they're big, but they have to get away from those big fish because it's a fish eat fish world out there.

[Narrator] Top side, competition may not be so existential in the fifth grade, but this hands on experience offers valuable lessons to last a lifetime.

[Sikorski] Hey, everybody take turns.

You know looking across their class, we're all different.

We all come together in different ways, and that's how an oyster reef works.

[Student] There's too many on the top.

[Sikorski] And the students get to work together in a team, make this structure that we can then teach them has a bigger purpose than just learning how to mix concrete and assemble something right.

It's going to be there into the future and be placed into the waterways.

[Narrator] But first, the concrete must cure overnight.

♪ ♪ Meanwhile, a little further down river at Morgan State University's Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory, aptly nicknamed "PEARL", oyster family trees play a vital role in the reef wall program.

PEARL'S project began with locally harvested wild oysters.

Now, bags of shellfish are separated by their genetic lineage.

Researchers, Brittany Wolfe-Bryant, Shivish Bhandari, and Ming Liu select individual oysters to reproduce based on certain characteristics.

[Brittany Wolfe-Bryant] I know they look like rocks, but they're a lot more interesting than just that.

[Narrator] The three most critical traits: fast growth, disease resistance, and the ability to survive low salinity like the waters of the upper Chesapeake Bay.

In nature, oysters release their reproductive cells into the open water.

Egg and sperm connect by chance.

[cracking] But at Pearl, the team performs what's called a strip spawn, a lab procedure which makes mating much more precise.

Having chosen the best of the brood, the researchers identify the biological sex.

[Shivish Bhandari] Female.

[Wolfe-Bryant] Female?

[Bhandari] Yeah.

[Wolfe-Bryant] Oh wow.

We're getting a lot of females.

That's good.

[Narrator] And manually collect the reproductive cells, eggs, and sperm.

[Wolfe-Bryant] We do this so we're able to control the genetics of what specific oyster we're spawning together.

[Narrator] Fertilization takes place in a beaker.

[Wolfe-Bryant] We are oyster matchmakers.

We're basically choosing what males and females are breeding.

[Narrator] The resulting larvae will be used to populate reef balls, and thanks to their valuable inherited traits, hopefully grow into mature shellfish at an oyster sanctuary like this one situated just below St. Mary's College of Maryland.

It is managed by David Sikorski's friend and collaborator, Bob Lewis, Executive Director of the St. Mary's River Watershed Association.

[Bob Lewis] We took an area approximately five acres in size that was 98% barren mud.

There was virtually nothing living there.

All of the oysters had been harvested.

Today, 10 years later, there are over 40 million oysters living in that five acre area, and the water clarity is 400 percent better than it was before we started our project.

[Narrator] A transformation due in large part to reef balls, often stacked vertically to provide added three dimensionality.

The site's growth has been both planned and organic.

[Lewis] There are other filter feeders living there, mussels and barnacles and grass shrimp.

It's an ideal place for small fishes to grow up and find protection.

[hum of boat motor] [Narrator] Boating with Bob today, David can admire the accomplishments of their partnership and scout locations for future additions, like the reef balls currently curing at Huntingtown Elementary.

[Sikorski] So where are they going to go?

Do you have an idea yet?

[Lewis] Probably right under us now between these two higher ones, and we'll build a row underneath it just one high.

[Sikorski] Yeah.

I'd say we have plenty more space and a lot of work to do together, huh?

[Lewis] Oh yeah.

[Narrator] That's because, once again, with assistance and guidance from David ... [Sikorski] There it goes.

[Narrator] The fifth graders at Huntingtown Elementary School carefully dismantle the molds they built the day before and reveal their new creations.

An unveiling, which wraps the students and their instructor in pride and purpose.

[Student 2] I think it's really good.

I think we did really good on the project.

[Student 3] I like it.

And now this'll go in the bay and help oysters.

[Student 4] You know I just want to see it in five years to see what it looks like.

[Student 5] Hopefully covered in oysters by then.

[Sikorski] Working with those kids, I say I have the best job in the world.

I like it.

Having them be aware that something in the Chesapeake Bay that they've helped create is making it better, I think increases the likelihood that they're gonna be more aware of what's happening out there, even if they never see it again.

♪ ♪ [Narrator] To stream episodes of Outdoors Maryland, visit mpt.org.

And don't forget to follow us on social media.

[owl hoots] Learn more about Maryland's diverse natural resources at... or download the official mobile app.