For decades, Maryland has been synonymous with crabbing. But as the Chesapeake Bay's "watermen" fade away, a young TikTok-famous fisherman is hoping to revive it. It's 05:00 and still dark when Luke McFadden sets out from Maryland's Bodkin Point to start his day.
His boat, the FV Southern Girl, slowly makes its way down the creek and out into the open waters of the Chesapeake Bay , the largest estuary in the United States. Stretching from the northernmost tip of Maryland down to southern Virginia, the 200-mile-long Chesapeake Bay is made up of 11,684 miles of shoreline (more than the entire US West Coast) and is an integral part of the US Mid-Atlantic's economy. It also serves as the workplace for thousands of men and women seeking to make a living from its bounty.
"Being a crabber is all I've ever wanted to do," McFadden said, leaning against the hull of his boat after a day on the water. On shore, dozens of metal crab traps are stacked to be baited and set across the bay the following morning. Fishing has long been a way of life around here.
Scientists have found evidence of Native Americans relying on the region's crabs and oysters as a food source long before Europeans showed up. In 1608, English explorer John Smith sailed across the Chesapeake and wrote in his journal that oysters were "as thick as stones " . Ever since, people have been fishing for crabs and oysters here in a more-than-400-year-old tradition that continues to this day.
According to the National Oceanic .