[Announcer] This program is made by MPT to enrich the diverse communities throughout our state and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.

[Imani Black] Oyster cages!

[Narrator] Coming up.

One woman's quest to make aquaculture more inclusive.

[Imani Black] In a way, it's like me, kind of, giving back to my younger self, and like the things that I needed when I was younger.

[Narrator] Following in the footsteps of Mason and Dixon.

And, a sendoff fit for a monarch.

Next.

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

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Narrator] Cutting through familiar waters.

Twenty-eight-year-old Imani Black is on a mission to navigate the past and direct the future.

Today, she's taking a small group of girls on a tour of the Chesapeake Bay.

As members of Black Girls Dive, these Maryland teens travel the world on scuba adventures.

[Imani Black] So, you'll know, if it's got a bite, if you feel something tugging.

[Narrator] But, Imani wants to ensure they experience the unique nature of their own backyard.

[Imani Black] A few of them haven't fished before, so it's their first experience.

So, it's just really cool to be a part of that.

You did have one, but you reeled it in so fast, you knocked it off.

[Narrator] And, develop a meaningful lifelong relationship with this environment, just as she has.

[Imani] The outdoors is, sort of, the, kind of, anchor for a lot of things that I do in life.

[Narrator] And so, near the mouth of the Chester River, with a collection of floats off in the distance... [Imani] Oyster cages!

Ding, ding, ding.

That's right.

[Narrator] ...Imani introduces her audience to oyster aquaculture.

[Imani] There's hatchery, nursery, and farm.

So, when you think about oyster farming, think about babies, teenagers, adults.

Does that make sense?

[Narrator] Talking about sustainability and the importance of this keystone species to the Chesapeake Watershed.

[Imani] Oyster farms are actually super, super great for our water quality.

[Narrator] Imani knows what she's talking about.

She's worked in oyster aquaculture for about six years, rising to be an Assistant Hatchery Manager.

Sharing her knowledge and story, she hopes to inspire these young Black girls.

[Imani] I want them to be able to look at me and say, "Oh wow, like, okay.

That is something that I can do."

In a way, it's like me, kind of, giving back to my younger self, and like the things that I needed when I was younger.

[Narrator] At the outset of her aquaculture career, Imani enjoyed the work, but she often felt isolated.

[Imani] I was kind of looking around, and I didn't really see any other women, and then I really realized that like a lot of the people of color that I worked for were not like managers, or in leadership roles.

[Narrator] As a former division one athlete, she was accustomed to working hard to achieve her goals, and she often stood out on the lacrosse field, but not just for her performance.

[Imani] I got conditioned to, kind of, being the token Black girl, which is why I think it took me as long as it did to realize what was happening in aquaculture, because I had just become accustomed to being the only one.

I think it was in 2020, somebody told me that I was the only African American woman participating in aquaculture from Maryland to Texas, and I wanted to debunk that, that fact (laughs) because I didn't actually believe it.

[Narrator] That same year, news events had a profound effect on Imani.

[Imani] The conversation of you know, diversity and inclusion came about with you know, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.

And, those, as a person of color, those situations really changed my outlook on things.

[Narrator] Determined to address inequities in the industry she loved, she created MIA.

Minorities In Aquaculture, a support and advocacy organization for people like her.

[Imani] I just realized that I had never worked with another woman of color in my space, which is why I started Minorities In Aquaculture, as a way to, kind of, search for other women of color that were out there.

[Narrator] MIA has grown to more than 100 members, altered Imani's career path, and changed the course of her typical day.

[Imani] Most of the day to day is me, so it's getting logistics together.

It's meeting with people who are potential partners or could potentially have different opportunities that our members could really benefit from.

[Child] Oh, look it.

There's a little baby there.

[Imani] Look at these guys.

[Narrator] As if that's not enough, Imani is also working on her master's thesis in ecological anthropology, with a focus on the rich, and largely overlooked, history of African Americans working in the Chesapeake.

Boat builders, restaurant owners, watermen.

[Imani] It's always been, kind of, left out of the conversation, and there's such a unique and like deep history when it comes to African American fishing communities, African American people in different sectors of the fisheries on the bay.

So, I'm just interested in finding out like, the real story.

It's mostly the oral history pieces that I'm really interested in, because not a lot of people have really gone to them and gotten the perspective from their own words.

[Narrator] Her studies brought her back to University of Maryland's Horn Point Laboratory.

Where, at an early age, her direction was set at a youth camp, like this one, she visited while on campus.

[Imani] They're baby barnacles.

I got bit by the bug, I think.

My love for this space started here and now, I get to be here as a student.

[Narrator] And, that can mean meeting with her advisor Matthew Gray, over a bag of research oysters.

[Matthew Gray] Imani has a really interesting project.

We're in a school that focuses mostly on environmental science, but she has a big sociological slant to her research, where she's trying to figure out why African Americans have, apparently, disappeared from the working waterfront.

[Imani] A captain could go anywhere on the Chesapeake Bay, but if you were first mate... [Narrator] But, Imani doesn't simply want to study the past.

[Imani] What's up, Cap?

[Narrator] She wants to impact the future.

[Imani] How are ya?

[Narrator] And so, she's partnered with Captain Lamont Wright, one of the few remaining Black charter boat captains working out of Kent Narrows.

[Captain Lamont Wright] I'm trying to keep the legacy alive.

If somebody don't do something quick, we going to lose all of this.

Youu know, there'll be no more Black captains, and that's our history.

[Narrator] Together with Chesapeake Cultural Historian Admiral Vince Leggett, they created Minorities On Course, a program to help African Americans obtain their Charter Boat Captain's license.

[Captain Wright] You need your fishing guide license, you need your radio license.

All of this stuff you got to go to school for, and obtain these license, before you can physically, actually charge somebody to go fish.

You want a giant Rockfish?

[Narrator] Aboard today's cruise, a group of administrators from Chesapeake College, interested in fishing... [Captain Wright] Other than that... [Narrator] ...cultural history... [Captain Wright] ...it's a good way of living.

[Narrator] ...and learning more about how their students may benefit from the program.

[Woman] What would be the best way to get them connected with you or Captain Wright?

[Captain Wright] That's, that's important.

[Narrator] Also aboard, one of the first Minority On Course participants.

[Captain Wright] Charting that plot is something that you got to really focus on.

[Narrator] Captain Wright had been generously paying for students sea time out of his own pocket.

He even offered Imani support getting her license, but she saw a bigger purpose, and raised funds to pay for the program.

[Imani] Get minorities back on the water, having a relationship with the water, but also, kind of, considering being a boat captain or any marine occupation.

[Captain Wright] I am so proud of her being a Black female wanting to do this.

She is awesome.

She's awesome.

[Narrator] Minorities In Aquaculture, Minorities On Course, researching cultural histories, new building blocks for all she hopes to achieve in the future.

[Imani] I love the Chesapeake Bay.

I love what it stands for.

I love the history.

I love the culture.

I am an Eastern shore girl.

(music fades out) ♪ ♪ [Eric Gladhill] Well, some of the difficulties we've had are, getting across swollen creeks where there's really no bridge, going through briars and brush.

♪ ♪ Especially this time of the year with all the dense undergrowth, it's hard to get to some of them.

♪ ♪ [Narrator] A weathered rock along a creek by a cornfield in Northern Frederick County.

It's easy to miss unless you're a professional surveyor, like Eric Gladhill.

But, this stone is special.

It has a name, Stone 77.

And, like the other 130 markers spaced every mile along the state border, it has a story.

It was put here in the 1760s by surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon.

The Mason and Dixon Line.

P for Pennsylvania on one side, M for Maryland on the other.

[Eric] This one's been here for 260 years, almost.

So, it's probably going to stay here.

There's no immediate threat.

It hasn't washed out with floods.

It hasn't been plowed, you know, because of its location right here at the top of the bank.

Stones like this, there's no need to do anything, at the present, but there's some that are endangered.

[Narrator] Which, is why an intrepid band of volunteers, many professional surveyors like Eric, are wandering through woods, and across farm fields.

Their goal?

To locate these limestone markers, and protect them from further damage.

[Pat Simon] Over time, these stones disappear.

Is there a shopping center built there?

Farming equipment hits them, breaks them off.

All that's left is just the base.

[Narrator] That's what happened to this marker, Stone 40.

Now retired, Pat Simon was a surveyor with Baltimore County, and an enthusiastic volunteer with the Mason-Dixon Line Preservation Partnership, when he found Stone 40 on Todd Shank's family farm in Harford County.

[Todd Shank] One day, a person shows up at my front door, and he's trying to tell me about some Mason-Dixon marker that's on my property, and ask if he could look around, and do some surveying.

And, I wasn't too excited about it, in the beginning.

[Pat] Sound of a shovel hitting a stone is very unique.

So, it was quiet that morning.

So, as soon as that shovel hit the stone all...

There was about six or eight of us, and all the heads just pointed to, looked at the same spot.

[Todd] They were like, waving their hands, saying, "Hey, hey, hey."

And, they actually found it.

[Narrator] Today, the original stone sits side by side with a replica, offering a glimpse at what these markers looked like when they were first placed, more than 250 years ago.

From the coastal flats of the Delaware Maryland border, to the densely forested Appalachian Highlands, most of us know it as the historic boundary between north and south, between slavery and free states.

But, in 1763, when Mason and Dixon crossed the ocean from England with a shipload of 500 pound stone markers, their mission was about property lines.

Specifically, resolving a boundary dispute between the Penn family of Pennsylvania, and the Calverts of Maryland.

[Eric] It was two British people, and it was so bad they couldn't decide.

So, the King of England had to decide for them, saying, "This is... We're hiring Mason and Dixon, and they're going to put these monuments out."

[Narrator] One stone per mile along the border, with every fifth stone, called a crown stone, bearing the crests of the Penn and Calvert families.

[Richard Ortt] I want to thank you for taking care of the monument for the last 30 years here.

[Narrator] Richard Ortt is the director of the Maryland Geological Survey, or MGS.

The organization overseeing the efforts to locate and preserve Mason-Dixon markers.

[Man] Watch your step.

It's a little wet right here, today.

[Narrator] Today, he's paying a visit to stone number 19, buried in an active quarry in Cecil County.

[Richard] So, the monument's looking well-preserved, although, it's, it's been covered in mud, and has seen lots of time, and see the algae growing on it, but still has the M and P marks, on both sides, for Pennsylvania and Maryland.

[Narrator] But, this marker is under imminent threat.

The quarry is planning to excavate a four to 500 foot pit where the marker now stands.

[Richard] We're going to have to protect this by removing it.

So, we'll protect it for the years, until we can decide what the best thing to do, after the quarry is remediated, and, if we want to turn into an educational display, or whether we come back, and still mark the line with it.

[Narrator] By state code, MGS is required to conduct a survey of the stones every decade, but there hasn't been a full survey in 40 years.

Richard hopes to not only find all of the markers, but, eventually, get them listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[Richard] So, we're about two-thirds of the way done, the inventory that we just started.

Our plan is to get the ones that we can find, so we can document them, and put them on the National Registry.

We do know that there's going to have to be a second effort that's going to be looking for the lost monuments.

[Narrator] These days, surveyors rely on technology like GPS, and even drones, to locate these missing markers.

[Eric] The typical survey crew these days is one person with a GPS.

[Narrator] But, back in the 18th century, the tools of the trade didn't come with batteries.

Every year, at the Colonial Market Fair, at the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park in Catonsville, contemporary surveyors, like Eddie Glawe, break out compasses and chains and relive the old ways.

[Eddie Glawe] The chain is referred to as a Gunter chain.

It is 66 feet long.

100 links.

[Narrator] Mason and Dixon might have used something like this to measure distance, but they wouldn't have used the other antique instrument on display.

[Eddie] This is a Gurley compass.

[Narrator] A special kind of compass, that enables surveyors to distinguish between magnetic north and true north.

It was invented about a century too late for Mason and Dixon.

For their directions, they looked, instead, to the stars, according to surveyor, Bob Banzhoff.

[Bob Banzhoff] There are certain way to observe the stars, with an Almanac, that you can tell what the true astronomical time is.

Then, knowing the true time, they could do their observations, observe the stars, and figure out where they truly were.

[Narrator] Mason, the astronomer, relied on a vertical telescope called a Zenith Sector.

[Eddie] They'd be laying in the mud, on the cold ground, waiting in anticipation of a passing star, and then, calling time when it did pass the crosshairs.

[Bob] It was quite a complicated process, and they were the two guys that did all the math, and you're talking about spherical trigonometry.

It was really something with a pencil.

[Narrator] Later, they would use these notes to create the, now famous, map of the line.

And, in the end, this map and these markers set, in literal stone, who lived in Maryland, and who lived in Pennsylvania.

[Richard] When you go up in the air, you want to make sure that we see everything around us.

[Narrator] For Richard Ortt and his team of volunteers, the search for the missing markers continues, the challenges growing as they work their way into the wilder west.

[Richard] As we start crossing over into the Appalachians, and further west, it's taken a little more time to get to those.

[Narrator] But, you can bet they won't give up the hunt.

These 21st century surveyors still get a little starry-eyed when they talk about following in the footsteps of Mason and Dixon.

[Eric] It's respecting and remembering history.

When Mason-Dixon did this, it was uncharted territory.

I mean, people have said what they did then was equivalent to the moon landing.

(music fades out) ♪ ♪ [Narrator] It is one of nature's great transformations when a monarch larva, a caterpillar, sheds its exoskeleton for the fourth and final time.

It splits to reveal an emerald green chrysalis.

♪ ♪ The caterpillar's own digestive juices are used to dissolve most of its body, down to the cellular level.

From this resulting soup, the butterfly is formed.

After two weeks, the monarch emerges.

It's known as a complete metamorphosis, and it occurs so often in Maryland and across North America, one might consider it mundane, if it wasn't such a wonder to witness.

Perhaps, there's no place the charm of the orange and black insect is more evident, than the Merkel Wildlife Sanctuary during the annual Monarch and Milkweed Festival.

[Melissa Boyle-Acuti] Who would like to volunteer their nose?

Now, is the tagging... [Narrator] Count Melissa Boyle-Acuti, Chief of Interpretation for the Maryland Park Service, as one of the monarch's many admirers.

[Melissa] There it goes.

Ope, she's not quite ready.

There she goes.

Yay.

So, I've heard it called, kind of, the gateway drug to conservation.

I'm not quite sure, if that's really what it is, but it is a very charismatic insect.

Sometimes, you know, insects get that bad wrap, but a butterfly, how can you have a bad rap?

And, the monarch is special, because it has this migration.

[Narrator] A 3,000 mile trip from one end of North America to the other, undertaken by a creature that weighs less than a paper clip.

A fantastic journey, and the inspiration for this mid-September festival in Upper Marlborough.

[Melissa] Yeah.

The monarchs that are coming south, right now through this area, are heading down to Mexico for the winter.

And, it's, actually, what we would call the fourth generation of monarchs.

[Narrator] Also known as the super generation, the fourth generation is born later, and lives longer than the other generations.

Shorter days and cooler temperatures are thought to trigger migration, a spectacular sight.

[Melissa] Those monarchs, in the spring, will come a little bit north, and lay their eggs.

And, they will die, after laying their eggs.

And, that next generation, we call that generation two, would come a little further north, and that would continue on until the seasons change, and they start moving south again.

[Narrator] Much of what we know about their journey comes from these little dots.

[Melissa] We are tagging monarchs today.

These are the tags.

They are these tiny little stickers.

[Narrator] Each with a unique number, placed on the underside of the hind wing, so as not to interfere with flight.

Monarch Watch is a database that keeps track of tagged butterflies, and when and where they're found.

[Melissa] So, this is either a citizen science, or a community science program, and everybody who wants to can order tags and get involved.

[Narrator] Millions of eastern monarchs migrate each year, but their numbers have fallen in the past two decades.

Jenn Selfridge, an ecologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, wants festival goers to develop an appreciation for monarchs, but also for the challenges they face.

[Jenn Selfridge] This is a great opportunity to highlight to people that insects are not bulletproof.

That, even though there's so many of them, they're all over the place, they seem ubiquitous.

But, they really do have some very significant threats facing them.

[Narrator] Threats like climate change, development, pesticides, and declining native plants.

Natives like milkweed, where monarchs lay their eggs, and food for young caterpillars when they hatch, and late blooming nectar plants, which adults need to fuel their migration.

[Jenn] And, they need big fields of it, because it's not one monarch flying through.

It's hundreds of them, and they need to be able to perceive it from the air.

So, they need to be able to smell it, they need to be able to see it.

So, having these fields of golden rods and asters, is incredibly valuable for migrating monarchs.

[Christina Sochi] Alright, we've got some golden rod in Subplot A.

[Narrator] It's early October in Anne Arundel County.

The tail end of the Monarch migration.

[Christina] Golden rod.

All right.

[Narrator] Master Naturalists, Christina Sochi and Jessica Furr, are working their way through a meadow that's mostly past its prime.

[Christina Sochi] No, nothing here.

So, we are out here at Jug Bay, and we are doing a blooming plant survey.

So, just getting an idea of the nectar plants, pollinator plants that could be in this site for the monarchs.

So, we usually start this survey every May, and, normally, we go up until about September, October.

All right, nothing blooming, and no milkweed.

Jessica Furr: We actually saw quite a few monarchs, in the beginning, and then it, kind of, has plateaued and dropped off a lot.

We are more concerned now, because we're not seeing the monarchs.

They're usually here this time of year.

[Christina] I don't see any eggs or caterpillars on this one.

[Jessica Furr] Nothing here, unfortunately.

Nope, no caterpillars and no eggs.

[Narrator] These surveys, tracking population and habitat, are performed around the country as part of the Integrated Monarch Monitoring Program.

[Christina] So, this is a small white aster, a whole group of them, and this is a great source of pollen.

So, at this time of year, if there were any monarchs remaining, and they haven't migrated just yet, they could come over this site, get some nectar, and then, they'd be on their way.

[Narrator] Keeping them on their way is the goal.

While, monarchs aren't a federally listed endangered species, they are at risk.

[Jenn] The fact that monarchs have so much public support, is one of the things that is going to keep them around.

[Narrator] In Rockville, that support comes by way of a transformation fit for a monarch.

Once, a golf course, this property is now a public park, and thanks to Girl Scouts, Joycelyn Fryer, Annabelle Kemp and Eva Kaloa, a 400 square foot section of the property is now a thriving mix of native plants, dripping with pollinators.

[Annabelle Kemp] We have created a Monarch waystation, just back there, where it's a certified waystation, where monarchs can stop and rest, and... [Joycelyn Fryer] Lay eggs.

[Annabelle] They lay eggs there, too, on their journey of migration.

[Joycelyn] We are so proud of it.

So, at the beginning it was a giant jungle, like Annabelle said.

[Annabelle] Ton of weeds.

[Joycelyn] Yeah.

It was entirely weeds.

[Annabelle] The garden is such a weird shape.

It's like a teardrop shape, so we had to do like... [Joycelyn] We had to map out everything.

[Annabelle] Math.

[Joycelyn] Math?

[Annabelle] All the equations.

[Narrator] After lots of weeding, plowing, planting, and watering, a monarch oasis was born.

[Annabelle] I really like butterflies, so I think it's really nice that we can help the species that needs it.

(music fades out) ♪ ♪ [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.

♪ ♪