MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Chesapeake Bay blue crabs - they are to Maryland what lobsters are to Maine, a signature seafood part of the identity. But these are not easy times on the bay. The crab population has been falling while the average age of a crabber has been climbing into the late 50s. So who are the next generation of crabbers? NPR's Frank Langfitt hit the water to find out.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT RUNNING)
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: So we're just on a little cove. It's early morning. There's some seagulls. The sun is still not up.
JACK TORNEY: My name is Jack Torney. I was born and raised in Annapolis, Maryland, and I'm a full-time commercial crabber.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT RUNNING)
LANGFITT: Jack is laying out 2,400 feet of line, and every 16 feet, he's got little pouches of razor clams to catch the crabs.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT RUNNING)
LANGFITT: Torney is 23, with a blonde goatee. He's equipped his boat with a roller that lifts the line from the muddy bottom to the surface. It's kind of like a crab conveyor belt.
TORNEY: There's the first one in the morning.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCOOPING CRABS INTO BIN)
LANGFITT: He scoops them up with a metal mesh net and tosses them in a bin. They scurry about, looking to escape.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCOOPING CRABS INTO BIN)
LANGFITT: Crabs have excellent vision and are feisty. One faces off against me, bears his blue claws, ready for battle. And they're not happy.
TORNEY: They will definitely not be happy because they'll be going to steamer later tonight.
LANGFITT: Crabbing can be thrilling, and Torney loves the work.
TORNEY: I enjoy being out on the water. Growing up, I didn't like going to school, just because I didn't like being in a building all day. I'd rather be in nature.
LANGFITT: But becoming a commercial crabber isn't easy. Maryland has capped licenses for the past decade at around 5,400 annually to protect the fishery. Licenses are often passed down through families. Turnover is extremely low. Torney says he's part of a dying breed.
TORNEY: There is not many, say, 18- to 30-year-olds left crabbing.
LANGFITT: Why is that?
TORNEY: Because most people my age, they don't see it as a full-time job. They'd rather work in the office building than be out on the water.
LANGFITT: Torney is a first-generation crabber, but in his time on the water, he's seen worrying signs.
TORNEY: There's definitely less crabs from when I first started when I was 14.
LANGFITT: A recent University of Maryland survey found the crab population fell by half between 2011 and 2023, though, a survey this year showed an encouraging rebound. Scientists blamed the drop in the crab population on the loss of marsh habitat to waterfront development and the invasive blue catfish, which eat juvenile crabs. Torney works alone to keep costs down. But rising prices, including fuel, cut into his profits.
TORNEY: It costs around a hundred to $150 to leave dock a day. But also, you got to put in licensing fee, marina slip, any wear and tear on motor, oil changes.
LANGFITT: Torney says a solo crabber can earn about $95,000 a year but overhead consumes a third of that. To earn more for what he catches, Torney uses Facebook to sell directly to consumers.
TORNEY: I will put a post out around 10 a.m. this morning. Let everybody know I'll have them fresh off the boat.
LANGFITT: One of Torney's contemporaries is Luke McFadden. McFadden's 30. To sell his crabs and promote the industry, he's become a social media star. McFadden post videos on how to catch crabs and pick them.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LUKE MCFADDEN: You got the claws. Grab them like this. We're going to break them against the knuckle.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRAB SHELL CRACKING)
MCFADDEN: And pull. Sometimes you get the whole thing. Like, that's the entire arm meat right there.
LANGFITT: McFadden is a handsome, freckle-faced Korean American. He's built a social media following of more than 3 million. I recently visited his crab stand, which is about a mile from the water.
MCFADDEN: Thank you, man. I appreciate you guys so much. It was really nice to meet you guys.
LANGFITT: The stand is a converted 41-foot fishing boat McFadden placed in a gravel parking lot. Among his customers today, Kodi Holbrook and Jenny Sarisky. Sarisky works retail. Holbrook's an electrician. They're in their 20s.
KODI HOLBROOK: We saw him on YouTube. So we decided to come down and take a look.
LANGFITT: And where do you live?
HOLBROOK: New York. Long Island, New York. So, yeah, we drove down this morning, about 4.5 hours.
LANGFITT: Just to meet Luke?
HOLBROOK: Yeah, pretty much.
LANGFITT: What do you like about the social media presence?
HOLBROOK: The aspect of the water and seeing people actually catch the seafood and to see where the food comes from that we've been eating all our lives.
LANGFITT: McFadden sells all kinds of branded merchandise from the boat.
MCFADDEN: We have two different kinds of seasoning. I have a Korean barbecue style. We also have it on potato chips. We got T-shirts from my merchandise brand.
LANGFITT: Not everyone here on the bay is a Luke McFadden fan. Last year, one of his boats was vandalized. McFadden says his style rubs some old-school crabbers the wrong way. But while out crabbing one morning, he also told me that to make it in this business these days, people have to adapt.
MCFADDEN: You're going to have to get creative in a lot of ways. You're going to have to make the most out of everything that comes over your rail. For me, it's the crabs, and it's the story.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRABS POURING INTO BIN)
LANGFITT: The story young crabbers are telling about fighting the odds to keep this Chesapeake Bay tradition alive.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News on the Chesapeake Bay.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENYA SONG, "ORINOCO FLOW") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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