NOVA

[Narrator] There is a place... on this blue planet... unlike any other... ...where ice retreated, water flowed in... and life exploded.

The first people here called it "The Dawnland"-- the place where the sun rose first.

This is the story of how we used the treasure of this place... ...founded nations... ...and devastated others.

Today, this sea within a sea is warming faster than 97% of the global ocean.

So, what happens here in the Gulf of Maine could happen everywhere, for jobs, for culture, for every living thing.

But there is a hidden strength here.

Fishers, scientists and the first people here believe answers are in the sea... ...a way forward... to strike a balance between people and nature.

It will happen here, where we face the test that will define us all... ...in this place, where the sun rises first.

[] [] The beauty of this place and the amazing array of life here makes you wonder, how did the Gulf of Maine get like this?

How did the Gulf happen?

A perfect calibration of elements created an intricate work of nature, allowing so much to thrive, that millions have come to depend on it.

But this is just a snapshot in time.

It hasn't always been this way, and it's changing in ways we're only beginning to understand.

This is not a story about endings, it's a story about adaptation... [Bri Warner] Change is not hard for the people who are affected by climate change.

What's hard is sticking with the status quo.

[Narrator] ...a story about survival.

[Mike Masi] It is interesting to think about the next generation, and the generation after that, who's going to fill in into an industry that has an uncertain future.

[Narrator] It's also about the people who rise to the challenge of a constantly changing home... [Bob Baines] Things change, and you just keep on going.

You know fishermen, that's what we always do.

[Narrator] ...through unexpected innovation... [Sara Rademaker] As we understand our fisheries better, we learn better management practices, technology that's local value-added.

[Narrator] ...solutions from surprising places... [Andre Brito] I think there are excellent opportunities, for the dairy industry to be part of the solution of climate change.

[Narrator] ...and by passing on culture.

[Billy Longfellow] It's important to pass on the knowledge that we've learned to keep us connected to this land that we have been a part of for generation after generation.

[Narrator] Now, as change moves faster than ever before, can our own ingenuity shape a new Gulf that can provide for us all?

It's spring in the Gulf of Maine, and a sense of anticipation permeates the air as locals eagerly await the arrival of seasonal visitors.

These are alewives, a type of river herring.

They've come in from the sea to spawn, traveling up dozens of rivers to reproduce in the lakes and streams that feed the Gulf, and it's a chance for lobstermen to stock up on fresh bait.

[Richard Gilmore] I didn't know what time they opened up.

I was here at midnight, so I was sleeping in my truck for a few hours this morning.

[Narrator] It's worth the wait, because this is some of the only fresh bait available this time of year.

[Gilmore] This is what the lobsters want this time of year, is fresh bait.

They'll eat other bait, salted bait, frozen bait, but you're not going to catch the big ones, and the quality stock that this stuff catches.

You know, you go to McDonald's, you get a hamburger, you know, you go to the store and make it yourself, it's going to taste better, right?

Because it's fresh, you know, quality.

I think it's 35 a bushel, uh, five crates here, so 15 bushel at 35, so it's kind of pricey, but if I can get lobsters off it, it will pay for itself.

These fish are important because it makes me a paycheck, puts food on the table, puts a roof over my head.

That's why I'm chasing these fish.

[Narrator] While some chase the alewives, one man waits for them.

[Steve Bodge] Well, I've been here since I was 11, and, uh... off and on for 66 years.

We used to dip 'em all by hand with these things.

[Narrator] Steve Bodge is one of 21 alewife harvesters in the state of Maine.

[Bodge] It's a way of life here, I mean, for us, for this family, I mean, I don't know who's going to do it after I do it, but somebody will.

I mean, it's a way to make money, and it's a way to keep the fish going.

[Narrator] For the fish to keep coming back every year, they have to get past the dam next to his operations.

To do that, he maintains a fish ladder, a series of ascending pools, which get the alewives up and over dams.

Good for the economy and for the ecosystem.

[Bodge] It's these ones that come first, and then the pogies come.

So all of them eat the pogies, and then the mackerel come, so all them other fish eat the mackerel.

You know, it's all a cycle that keeps everything going.

[Narrator] Alewives have been a part of this cycle for thousands of years.

To the people of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, alewives are the fish that feed all.

[Chris Sockalexis] All the tribal communities within the Maine and the Maritimes in New England really relied on waterway systems to get from inland to the ocean for the spring fishing seasons to catch these sea-run spring fish coming up to spawn.

So it's very important for these fish to come back, not only for sustenance fishing, but just to have them back for food ways.

They not only nourished the Wabanaki People, but they nourish eagles and the other animals that rely on fish.

[Narrator] Chris Sockalexis is an archaeologist and member of the Penobscot Nation.

He studies and preserves our understanding of the first people in the Gulf.

One of his primary sources of research are historic shell mounds, which rise up along the Maine coast, with a white signature.

[Sockalexis] It's a magnificent time capsule in history with what's contained within this shell mound.

[Narrator] It may look like a hillside, but it's solid shells, about 30 feet tall, made primarily of oysters and clams built up over thousands of years.

[Sockalexis] It's approximately 2,000 years old.

So it's just an amazing piece of the Gulf of Maine history of the diets.

[Narrator] The shell mounds in the Gulf reveal a menu of what Chris's ancestors were eating, not just shellfish, but things like sturgeon, cod, and even bear.

There's so much valuable information in here of subsistence living along the coast of Maine.

[Narrator] Information not just about their diets, but about their seasonal movements and their development of technology.

Seeing harpoons made from swordfish, from the bill of the swordfish, just to see that type of technology, and how it changes over time.

[Narrator] Every part of nature is woven into the fabric of Indigenous culture, and every living thing is deeply connected, so for Chris, this isn't just an archeological site.

[Sockalexis] I walk that fine line between traditional Penobscot with modern science, so I consider these ancestral lands.

My ancestors lived here year after year after year for millennia, and to feel, you know, just what's here.

Certain areas, you can just really feel that energy on what activities took place here, whether they're just sites to come and eat, or shell mounds that are burials.

So these are special places.

[Narrator] What some of these mounds reveal is just how much people here have relied on the bounty that rides up these rivers each spring.

After spending much of their time in the Atlantic Ocean, alewives are heading to their spawning grounds.

Their senses of taste and smell are so acute that they actually lead them back to the exact places where their own lives began.

These alewives have already traveled hundreds of miles, and are now in the last leg of their journey.

About three miles north of Portland, they arrive at the base of the Presumpscot Falls.

They'll have to wait for ideal water levels to hasten the trip home.

If your value to an ecosystem is measured by how many things want to eat you... ...then alewives are priceless.

From above, predators survey their prospects... ...and go in for the kill.

Not to be outdone, cormorants duck under... and tuck in.

A feeding frenzy ensues.

Alewives may be the fish that feed all... ...if you can hold onto them.

Undeterred, the mass presses on, driven by the need to spawn.

For those that have escaped the onslaught of predators, another challenge presents itself.

Spring rains have produced rapids that nearly bring the migration to a halt.

The drive to reproduce is like a superpower, propelling the alewives forward.

Alewives have the ability to leap over small obstacles, but until recently, giant dams blocked more than half of Maine's historical alewife spawning habitat.

But since the 1990s, dozens of dams have been removed.

After two dams on the Penobscot River came down, alewife numbers went from near zero in 2010, to more than six million in 2023.

For the 1,000-plus dams still in place, fish ladders let the fish do what they're good at.

Alewives are making a comeback.

But in other parts of the Gulf of Maine, as waters warm, the system is increasingly out of balance.

One man is trying to offset that, hoping we can eat our way out of the problem.

Lurking beneath this tranquil surface is a predator, relatively new to town.

Introduced here by humans about 200 years ago, warming waters have allowed green crabs to take over, eating just about everything in their path.

Its hunger seemingly insatiable, a baited trap is all the invitation a green crab needs.

Soon, this dinner party becomes a rave, but one the guests can never leave.

[Mike Masi] See a green crab there, green crab there, all kind of heading towards my trap on the bottom, so let's go ahead and haul the first one, and see what kind of day it's going to be.

[Narrator] During the 37 years Mike Masi has lived in Maine, he's seen a lot of change in these waters.

This little channel is getting a little bit wider and wider every year.

Could be sea-level rise, that could be a factor, but I think these little guys constantly digging and burrowing in those banks is a big part of the problem.

[Narrator] Invasive green crabs are an ever-growing scourge here.

The relentless predation on just about everything in these waters has decimated this ecosystem.

[Masi] They're digging for soft-shell clams.

When they do that, they can tear apart eel-grass beds, which are a very, very valuable habitat for commercially-important fish, like flounder and striped bass, and things like that.

They'll also burrow into the sides of the marsh bankings, and when they do that, they allow for increased erosion, and calving off of those marsh bankings.

So these guys really do no good here.

They significantly decrease biodiversity.

If you went back a couple hundred years, you'd probably find things like larval lobsters, and rock crab, and other species that were indigenous to this part of the world, and so now all we have is these green crab.

You can see just how abundant the resource is.

If we can find a way to tap into this underutilized resource, then that's a good thing for Maine's working waterfront, and it's a good thing for Maine's coastal ecology.

[Narrator] Once a marine science teacher at the local high school, Mike is using his scientific knowledge to reckon with the growing problem of green crabs.

[Masi] We need to develop more markets for these to be able to pay harvesters to take more significant quantities out of our estuaries.

The one market that has been established for some time is that of the bait market, but some of the emerging markets are to use them in stocks and broths, fermented fish sauce, pet foods, dog food in particular, maybe even agro feeds for poultry, chickens, and turkeys, and that kind of thing, but the idea that we're most actively pursuing is to use soft-shell green crab to be sold into restaurants.

[Narrator] To turn these invaders into a tempting menu item, Mike will need to let nature take its course, and strike at the right moment, when they've almost outgrown their old, hard shell, and before their new shell hardens.

Like other crustaceans, green crabs shed their shells when they grow, a process called "molting".

For green crabs, this happens one to two times a year.

About a day before molting, crabs take on water, causing their bodies to swell, and their old shell to come apart at a seam that runs around the body.

As the carapace opens up, the crab backs out of its old shell, removing its legs, antennae, mouthparts and gills.

The new shell won't harden for at least a day, so at this point, the crab is extremely vulnerable... an easy target for predators, including their cannibalistic brethren... ...and that's exactly what Mike and his intern, Billy Bachelder, are after.

We're going to sort here in the sun.

All right, so we just brought in our catch, and now we're going to go through and sort it.

We're looking at any males that have already molted.

Fresh, clean-looking males like that, and this one's not going to molt again until probably next year, so this one's going for bait.

[Narrator] In just a few hours, Mike and Billy have pulled in a decent catch.

Today, we managed to haul, all told, around $65 in bait.

We separated out about eight or nine pounds worth of pre-molt crabs, and each of these crabs, when they finally do molt, will be worth $2.50.

So, for the day, we're looking at about $260, $270 worth of crab for about three hours of work.

So that's not bad.

You know, I think, you know, you get up above $70 an hour, and you should be able to convince harvesters and fishermen that this could be something to supplement their incomes.

[Narrator] And a chance to stave off a complete green crab takeover.

It's a first step in the long journey from sea to table, a model that drives the Gulf of Maine's most lucrative fishery.

As a lobster trap settles to the seafloor, the scent of bait radiates out, luring in lobsters from far and wide.

A bag filled with fish is quite the temptation, and is worth defending.

A few unlucky lobsters end up in the wrong end of the trap, but for most, this is more of a takeout situation.

Lobster traps work a little bit on serendipity.

They actually have an escape vent, designed for smaller, sub-legal lobsters to bolt, while keeping the larger, legal catch in the trap, but the reality is, about 94% that enter escape, proving that, actually, there is such a thing as a free lunch.

Even though the vast majority of lobsters escape, the fishery is booming in some places.

One reason is that warming waters have caused their numbers to plummet in the southern part of the Gulf, pushing lobsters deeper, farther north, and farther off the coast.

What that means for the future is unclear, because as water temperatures continue to rise, lobsters will again move to where it's colder, as some egg-bearing females have already done.

For now, some lobsters have found their sweet spot here, and that has led to a surprising consequence-- a housing shortage.

Lobsters are solitary creatures.

A rocky crevice just big enough for one is prime real estate, but there are only so many crevices in the Gulf of Maine.

No rocks, no hideouts, no cover.

So the next best thing is to dig a hole.

Using their swimmerets and famous claws, they get to work.

While the lobster fishery here may be flourishing now, this housing shortage points to a system out of balance... ...and in 30 years, the Gulf of Maine may look very different, not just for the number one fishery here, but for everyone who depends on the Gulf to survive.

Some folks have already begun to adapt.

[Bob Baines] The lobster industry has changed over the years.

I've been doing it for 45 years.

Since the Gulf is warming, the lobsters are changing where they're living, so there are not as many lobsters inshore now.

The offshore fishery's doing really well.

We're still in good shape.

We have a very sustainable fishery, but you have to adapt.

So this kelp farming is, you know, one way to adapt.

[Narrator] Bob Baines has been lobstering for more than four decades, but for the past five years, he and his crew have spent their springs farming, not fishing.

[Dave] Well, the kelping is a good thing.

It gives us a little extra income in the springtime before we go lobstering, because we'll have a little bit of a break, you know, when we're getting ready for the season.

So it's like lobstering goes into this, goes into scalloping, goes right back to this.

It's constantly moving, which is good, you know, it keeps you busy.

[Cole] It's a good supplemental income is what it is right now, and, hopefully, in the future, we can make it more a bigger part of our income is the idea.

Next year, we're going to put in more lines, and more lines equals more money.

So, yeah, more kelp.

[Dave] More cutting.

More cutting.

[laughing] [Narrator] With more than 30 kelp farms already in the Gulf, business is growing.

Kelp is seeded by hand in late fall and winter, and harvested in April.

A string loaded with tiny kelp spores is wound around a rope, and suspended about seven feet below the surface.

Unlike wild kelp, its growing season is so short, that it's not around long enough to be damaged by warming waters and parasites.

One of the reasons why kelp is a no-brainer to farm is how quickly it grows, up to a foot a week.

By the time it's harvested, it can be 10 to 15 feet long.

Kelp also absorbs carbon dioxide from the water during photosynthesis, so it serves as a carbon sink, mitigating ocean acidification.

It's a win for the Gulf and the rest of the planet.

It's also a win for local fishers who want to diversify their incomes.

[Dave] I mean, everyone does their role.

Cole and I really set the pace, because we're doing the majority of the labor, but everybody has their job.

Bob's keeping the boat in place, Justin's keeping the speed on the winch, and we're maintaining.

So, definitely, at the end of the day, we're like, yeah, we did some work today.

It's just this and my back, really.

[laughing] Yeah, my arm's pretty much Jell-o by the time I get out of here.

[Baines] Things are going to change.

Things will change, not quickly, but, in my lifetime, I've seen changes, and it'll probably become a little bit more rapid.

[Narrator] As waters here continue to warm, these species of kelp may not be viable in the future, and these fishers and farmers will once again have to adapt.

[Baines] Fishermen are smart, and this is what we know how to do.

So, it's not easy, and we've got a lot of challenges, but guys will figure out what it takes to keep fishing.

[Narrator] For now, in a good season, the team can bring in about $45,000 from kelp farming.

[Cole] It went well.

We got ten bags, not nine.

Everything went smooth.

We got what we wanted and then some.

No one got hurt.

It was a good day.

Hey, this works.

You know, it's a good spring income.

Hopefully, we can just continue to improve every year, and produce, and, yeah, make food for people and put money in our pockets, so... works for me.

Okay, up from yesterday.

Bob's at 5.6 pounds per foot, which is a nice yield across his farm.

You got it!

Cut it to the door a little.

It's about a 7,500 payday, not a bad day on the water, especially in the off-season.

[Narrator] The next leg of the journey for this kelp is Atlantic Sea Farms, where Bri Warner hopes to revamp Maine's working waterfront by turning kelp into a new cash crop.

[Bri Warner] In 2018, we harvested around 30,000 pounds of kelp, and this year, we'll be harvesting over a million, so it's been huge growth, and it's been grown by Maine fishermen.

They're the leaders in kelp aquaculture in the country, by a long shot.

[Narrator] They're also adding stability to their lives, as warming waters make everything unpredictable.

I think so many people think of climate change as this kind of constant warming over time, but what it really is is incredible volatility over time, with a trend toward warming, but in the meantime, it's erratic, and it affects everything.

[Narrator] For now, kelp farming is working.

The kelp that's harvested and processed here makes everything from kelp salad, to burgers, to smoothie cubes.

While business may be thriving, Bri knows kelp isn't a silver bullet.

[Warner] Seaweed's not going to solve everything.

It's not even going to solve a lot, but it's going to help, hopefully, a hundred, 200, 300 people, and mobilize an idea around how we can do things better.

[Narrator] From farming kelp to harvesting green crabs, warming waters have pushed folks along the Gulf of Maine to innovate, even in some of the oldest and most traditional fisheries in the Gulf, like eels.

As the Gulf shakes off winter, another fresh wave of life arrives with spring.

These baby, or glass eels, have come to find a home.

Their journey started in the Atlantic Ocean, where they were born more than 1,000 miles away.

Migratory fish around here usually hatch in freshwater, and live most of their lives in the sea.

American eels go the opposite way.

Born in the sea, they can spend as much as 30 years in freshwater before returning to the ocean, where they spawn once and die.

After navigating the open ocean for about a year, it looks like they've met their match, literally hitting a wall.

But these eels have skills most fish don't.

They can climb.

Following just the smallest trickle of water, they scale their version of Everest... ...driven to find a freshwater home.

It's an amazing feat to have made it this far... but its at this stage ...as they transition from glass eels to a slightly bigger eel called an "elver"-- that they are most vulnerable, not just to the animals trying to eat them, but to the people trying to catch them.

[Billy Longfellow] Today is the opening of elver season at, I believe, noon today.

Hey, Mimi, you're going to use the bigger net this year because it will cover more space in your spot.

Okay.

[Narrator] in Sipayik, Maine, Billy Longfellow and his grandmother, Gerarda, mark the opening of elver season.

They and their Passamaquoddy ancestors have been fishing here for generations.

She's been eeling with me, and she also helps, uh, keep me company out there, and I try to get her a site that's easily accessible for her, so she can elver fish and be able to check her net.

Something we look forward to every year, and I'm ready to go now.

[Narrator] They're hoping to cash in on some of the Gulf's bounty.

Once profoundly overfished, the fishery is now tightly regulated, and lasts no more than three months.

Consequently, these little babies can fetch upwards of $2,000 a pound, bringing with them a potential windfall for the fishers who line these riverbanks with their nets.

Billy and Gerarda scope out a spot along the Pennamaquan River.

You see where we've put your trap near where that grass is?

-Mm-hmm.

-See how deep that is?

[Narrator] Fishing has always been a part of their family's life.

[Longfellow] I'm guessing with your dad, you know, my great-grandfather being a fisher person, or fisherman... Mm-hmm.

...did you eat a lot of fish, or did he just do it to sell it?

No, we ate fish every, every single day, and the house smelled like fish.

-Oh, my goodness... -Fish, fish, fish.

[Gerarda] We never went hungry because we always had fish.

[Narrator] They set up something called a "fyke net", a kind of trap that's usually used in shallow water.

It's essentially a funnel, and these nets keep fragile eels unharmed so they can be harvested and raised into the next stage of life.

[Gerarda] I'll go as far as I can, Billy, I'm not gonna go swimming.

[Narrator] For Billy, this yearly tradition sustains his family's tribal ways.

I build a lot of good memories with my grandmother, and I just want to see that connection keep going, whether we're commercially eeling, or just being out here, reconnecting with our local culture, and our ancestors, just by using the water like they may have.

My dad used to fish with my grandmother.

My grandmother used to fish with her father, and there's never been a break in it.

Whether it was a commercial fishery or a sustenance fishery, our family's always been connected to it even though we work different types of jobs in the modern world.

[Gerarda] Looks good, Billy.

I think it looks awesome.

Thank you.

[Narrator] The only thing to do now is wait.

[Longfellow] This spot will look completely different when the tide comes in, and there will be eels swimming into this net, and where my grandmother is standing will be completely underwater, and then when the tide goes out again, and it's similar to what you see now, we'll be emptying our nets, and hopefully have some glass eels tomorrow.

[Narrator] Each spring, baby eels find their way to these waters to settle.

They hide away in the eddies and along the riverbanks at low tide until they can move farther upstream at the next high tide.

By 2: 00 a.m., the tide has come back in...

It's kind of cold out, Mimi.

[Narrator] ...and, hopefully, brought some treasure with it.

[Longfellow] We'll see what we have, and we've got the equipment to clean it.

[Gerarda] Okay.

I'll have you take this.

-That's it?

-Yes.

Sure.

Lead the way.

So, you just undo that clip...

There we go.

[Longfellow] Yeah, just drag it this way, I can't-- [Gerarda] I will.

I know you can't.

[Narrator] Since Gerarda holds the fishing license, by law, she must handle her own trap, while Billy stands by to assist.

[Gerarda] Let's see what we have.

[Longfellow] And there's a bunch there.

This is a keepable amount.

[Gerarda] Yeah, it is.

[Longfellow] I think you did really good tonight, Mimi, -on your net... -[Gerarda] Yeah.

[Longfellow] ...and tomorrow after we sleep, we'll go turn 'em in.

Billy, it's just our bonding time.

It makes us feel... free.

[Longfellow] That is priceless, I believe.

[Gerarda] That's very true, Billy.

I'm just glad we're doing it together.

Ooh, it's cold.

[Sean] Let's get 'em strained out, and get 'em on the scale, and get you guys paid.

Those are nice, clean, happy eels.

All right, let's get them on the scale.

[Gerarda] They look good, nice and lively.

[Longfellow] Not bad, Mimi.

Oh, wow.

Good job, Mimi.

Not bad for just setting up real quick and hoping for the best.

That's right.

[Longfellow] It was definitely higher than we thought it was going to be.

-Here's your check.

-Thank you.

[Sean] Not a bad day's pay.

[Gerarda] Have a nice day!

[Narrator] For Billy and Gerarda, $1,100 brings a satisfying end to a cold night of fishing, but for the elvers in their nets, the journey continues.

Eels are a global multi-billion-dollar business, harvested at different stages of their lives for food, bait, and in this case, aquaculture.

This catch and others will now be exported abroad, raised on farms, mainly in Asia, and then sold again throughout the world, including right back here in Maine.

In Sara Rademaker's eyes, this is a system out of whack.

[Sara Rademaker] What I saw was an opportunity to take that local resource, keep it here in the U.S. and grow it out.

[Narrator] This is American Unagi, in Waldoboro, Maine.

[Rademaker] This is a land-based eel aquaculture farm.

We are growing our eels year-round indoors in recirculating aquaculture systems.

So everything's a controlled environment, which allows us to grow year-round even through the cold winters of Maine.

[Narrator] Sara's reimagining of the eel fishery means not just making it more sustainable, but providing more jobs for Mainers.

[Rademaker] Eels are a really unique opportunity in Maine.

We are one of the only two states that can fish for the glass eels, which are highly, highly valuable.

[Narrator] But raising eels into adulthood requires more than an innovative spirit.

It takes time and commitment.

We start with glass eels that are harvested from local fishermen, and those come into our farm in the spring.

We go through a period where we train 'em how to eat, and get 'em all comfortable, and then they can spend as long as 10 months to over two years growing out on the farm.

[Narrator] Kathleen Marciano has one of the most important jobs at American Unagi-- feeding the fish.

[Kathleen Marciano] So right now, I'm about to feed the bigger fish in our larger system, which requires a fork truck because sometimes I can go through as much as 250 kilos of just one size a day.

It's a really high-quality, fatty feed, high-protein, high-fat, and, yeah, it's what they like.

They've already started reacting.

[Rademaker] So what you're seeing right now is the eels are bumping this pendulum, and then they knock the feed off.

So when they're hungry, they'll get really active and feed themselves.

They learn when they're in here they can come to the surface and eat.

So they very quickly figure this pendulum out.

Food comes from the sky with these guys.

[Narrator] Now that they've figured out how to raise them, Sara is thinking bigger, and the eels are the perfect fish to scale.

[Rademaker] One of the reasons that eels do so well in land-based aquaculture is you can grow 'em at really high densities.

They like to be crowded.

They are very tactile creatures.

They move in groups.

Between tides, they'll hang out together, waiting for the time to run up the rivers, and they do that even as adults.

So when they're not eating, they'll hang out at the bottom of the tanks, lying on top of each other.

We affectionately call them "eel piles".

It makes them a really good species for growing indoors like this.

I really see an opportunity to build more of these facilities along the Maine Coast, with partners and communities that want to have an eel farm, and have this job opportunity and production in their town.

[Narrator] The possibility of growth might be easy because eels taste way better than they look.

[worker #1] It really isn't like anything else you can get.

It has the fattiness and tenderness of braised pork, and a really delicate flavor that you really only get from a lot of seafood.

[worker #2] It's fish bacon, you know, especially once it's smoked, like, that's the level of fat content we're talking about is pork belly.

[Narrator] Up until now, the U.S. has been importing more than 10 million pounds of eel a year, mainly from Asia.

Sara's trying to keep the process local.

[Rademaker] It's really unique for an eel farm to be connected directly to the harvesters like we are, and to have that relationship.

That's one of the things that really makes us stand out.

We're really trying to produce a product that consumers can trust that it was caught locally from local fishermen.

[Narrator] Sara's part of a long line of innovators in the Gulf of Maine.

From the first canned fish in the U.S., to the invention of flash freezing, innovation is a byproduct in a place where change is a way of life.

Mike Masi's hoping his green crab operation becomes part of that storied history.

Sam Sewall is Mike's business partner, and his former student.

[Masi] Step up, Sam.

You can't look tired for 5:00.

You're up every day at 4:00.

[Narrator] He's a lobsterman by trade, but is seeing the benefits of crabbing.

[Sam Sewall] Some of the biggest differences here is obviously different species, but to me, it's location, because when I am hauling my lobster gear, I am not up in an estuary.

You know, when I'm lobstering, I will sometimes be many miles offshore in all kinds of weather.

So this is really pretty easy, comparatively, and the expenses for this are next to nothing, whereas it costs me probably $1,000 just to go lobstering for a day, between bait and fuel.

For fishers like Sam and Mike, a burgeoning green crab fishery could not only be lucrative, but a huge benefit to the ecosystem.

[Masi] Oh!

Looks like we got a rock crab in here.

So this is our native red rock crab.

If it was not for the green crab invasion, we'd probably see a whole bunch of these guys.

Last year when we were fishing in here in the springtime, you know, we removed about 3,000 pounds of green crab, and we didn't find a single rock crab.

This year, after a year or so of fishing pressure, we're starting to see a few of these come up in the traps.

You know, maybe two or three on each haul.

So it's a good sign that maybe, just maybe, we are impacting the ecosystem for the better, and giving some of the native crabs a fighting chance.

I don't think there's a product on the planet that you could feel better about eating than invasive green crab.

It's delicious, and you're doing ecological benefits for our estuaries.

[Narrator] Mike and Sam need to keep them alive long enough to get them on dinner plates, so they designed pre-fab homes built for one.

[Masi] So these are the crab condos that we engineered.

They are designed to house the crabs individually when they're going through the molting process.

We need to do that because if the crabs were to molt in the presence of other crabs, they would immediately consume it, they would cannibalize it, and so, to keep them safe from each other, we have to keep them individually confined and wait for them to molt.

So, we've got a molted crab here.

This is its old exoskeleton, and you can see that it cracked right along here, along its carapace.

It leaves behind its gills, and this is the soft-shell crab, nice and leathery soft.

That's a nice crab for the soft-shell market.

[Narrator] The final step in the process?

Dinner.

[Masi] Knock, knock!

-Hello!

-Hey, Brendan, how you doing?

-Good, how are you?

-Good.

Got your 36 crabs for your weekend.

These were all harvested last night.

[Brendan] Awesome.

They got good size, too.

[Masi] Yup.

Hello, Michael, how you doing?

[Narrator] The soft shells are fast becoming a local delicacy, and chefs like Brendan Vesey are building a seasonal menu with green crabs.

Having grown up in Virginia, uh, we have tons of soft shell blue crab.

So the excitement of having a regional delicacy that is similar, from New England, is very high, and to me, these taste even better.

They have deeper umami flavor, a little bit sweeter, and superior to a blue crab, in my opinion.

They're wonderful.

[chef] They just taste so good culinarily, and it's really an amazing thing that we can use something like this that is harmful for the environment and have a positive impact.

Mangia, mangia.

And look at those, nice and crispy, even the legs, and there it is.

[Narrator] Time will tell if green crabs become a fine-dining mainstay... and while warming waters have led to the green crab explosion, those same warm waters have welcomed an even more aggressive species.

[Laura Crane] About three to four years ago, we started finding blue crabs in this salt marsh, as well as some other local salt marshes.

[Narrator] Every week, Laura Crane and Sammi Smith check a series of crab traps scattered throughout marshes in Wells, Maine.

Last year, in total, we caught 45 blue crabs, but this year, we must be at over a hundred at this point.

One blue crab.

[Sammi Smith] So it's notched, which means that we've caught it before.

Every time we're catching a new blue crab, we'll put a notch in its right swimmer paddle.

So we're still catching a lot of new ones.

[Narrator] They also thrive in warmer water, just like their smaller green crab cousins.

[Smith] So that's a green crab right there.

[Crane] We already know they're very abundant in the Gulf of Maine.

They've been wreaking havoc on our ecosystems.

One of the things we want to research is how are blue crabs going to affect other species in the Gulf of Maine?

[Narrator] For green crabs at least, it could be bad news.

[Crane] Blue crabs will definitely get a lot larger than green crabs at their adult size.

You can see this one's already about twice the size of that adult green crab, and one of the key characteristics with these blue crabs is they're a swimming crab.

So they have these swimming paddles as their last leg, so that allows them to swim really fast through the water, whereas the back leg on a green crab have just a regular walking leg.

[Narrator] Blue crabs can also produce at least ten times the number of eggs that green crabs do.

These differences may be the key to a surprising silver lining.

[Crane] One good thing that could come out of blue crabs coming up to Maine is that there's a potential for them to limit the populations of green crabs, which would be really great.

[Narrator] What that means for the Gulf is still unclear.

That one came out easily.

[Crane] The arrival of a species that's, you know, on the one hand, it could have, you know, negative impacts, because they're really major predators further south, so how are they going to interact with Maine's lobsters?

How are they going to interact with invasive species?

[Narrator] Despite the unknowns, we do know they're good eating.

The blue crab fishery is a $200-million industry in the mid-Atlantic and Southern United States... [Crane] I am from New Jersey, and so I also know that blue crabs are really delicious, and they're a huge part of the economy further south.

[Narrator] ...and that could provide another opportunity for fishers up and down the Gulf of Maine.

The challenge of warming waters has led to innovative solutions throughout the Gulf.

One of the most interesting leverages two crops that benefit each other and the ocean, while putting money in the farmer's pocket.

[Matt Moretti] Mussels are a very climate-positive food, and an organism.

They take very few resources to grow, but has some of the lowest impact on the environment around it.

[Narrator] A mussel farm is a pretty simple concept.

After they're seeded and suspended on ropes, there's no watering or fertilizing to worry about.

Up until harvest time, it's really a low-maintenance operation, but changing waters have driven Matt Moretti to adapt.

[Moretti] It was always my goal to have an integrated multitrophic aquaculture operation.

IMTA.

It's kind of a jumble of words, but it's basically growing multiple species together that benefit from each other, and that's what we're doing here.

This is a two species IMTA.

This is shellfish mussels and kelp algae.

[Narrator] By farming these species together, Matt's actually replicating what naturally occurs elsewhere in the Gulf.

[Moretti] So kelp photosynthesizes like a land plant, and in the process of that, it sucks carbon out of the water.

Carbon in the ocean is one of the main factors of ocean acidification.

Shellfish, our mussels behind us, are vulnerable to that extra acidity.

Their shell is made of calcium carbonate, and when there's too much acid in the water, it makes it harder for them to live and grow, and in extreme cases can dissolve that shell, but mussels grown within kelp farms have a thicker shell, fatter meat, and grow faster.

Yeah, I mean, it's real.

It's serious, significant results.

[Narrator] The natural flow of the currents moves through the kelp and into the mussels, so that the kelp serves as a kind of shield.

[Moretti] So they call it "a halo effect".

So, a halo around the farm where each individual line has actually less acidic water than the rest of the ocean.

[Narrator] But the benefits work both ways.

[Moretti] Mussels, like any living organism, produce waste, and that waste can actually help fertilize, or help the kelp grow faster and better.

The kelp needs that nutrient that the mussels are excreting as waste to grow.

So it's kind of like a local scale climate-mitigation strategy that we're employing right now, which is pretty cool to think about because climate change is a global problem, but growing mussels and kelp together is a small solution that we can employ on our farm, providing delicious, nutritious food much further into the future than we would have been otherwise.

[Narrator] What scientists and farmers like Matt have discovered, is that by leveraging nature and what it does best, they can stay ahead of changes to come.

One of the most unexpected benefits of this work from the sea could happen on land, and might help the entire planet.

Scientists like Andre Brito are studying how adding just a tiny amount of kelp to cattle feed could help address global climate change, one cow at a time.

Agriculture contributes to about 10% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

[Narrator] Each year, a single cow can release about 220 pounds of methane.

Now, methane traps heat in the atmosphere 28 times more effectively than carbon dioxide.

At the same time, it remains in the atmosphere for a fraction of the time that carbon dioxide does.

[Andre Brito] So, I think this research will contribute with the global initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

[Narrator] As cows digest, microbes in their stomachs produce methane, and when they release it, that methane is introduced into the atmosphere.

This device allows Andre to capture and measure the amount of methane in each burp.

Researchers around the world have found that adding seaweed to beef cattle feed could reduce methane emissions by around 90%.

[Brito] This is the seaweed, sugar kelp, that has been concentrated with bromoform.

[Narrator] Bromoform reduces how much methane is formed by inhibiting a specific enzyme in the gut during digestion.

[Brito] This is the secret ingredient that we expect to reduce methane over 50% in the dairy cows.

These cows we're feeding about 150 pounds of feed a day.

A little bit of the product can then have a big impact on the emissions of those animals.

[Narrator] With about one billion cows in the world, something growing and renewable in the Gulf of Maine could make an enormous impact on the entire planet.

For the people of the Gulf of Maine, change is a fact of life.

One season, one year at a time, adapting to what the ocean is giving is the only way a fisherman stays on the water.

[Baines] We just have to adapt.

Climate change is real, and the only thing we can do as fishermen is adapt to it.

[Narrator] There are no guarantees in the Gulf, but there will always be opportunities.

[Masi] The jury's still out as to whether or not we're going to be able to make a buck on it, but we know that we're doing a lot of ecological good.

If we can add a little bit of diversity to the working waterfront, that's a huge plus.

[Narrator] Those who chart a different course may find a path forward.

[Warner] We need a lot more ideas like this, showing that we can lean into the strengths of our people, lean into the strengths of our environment.

We don't need to work at cross purposes with Mother Earth to succeed.

[Narrator] And those who have always been adapting will continue to survive.

[Sockalexis] 100 years down the road, 500 years down the road, will Maine look the same?

And Im thinking no.

We're trying to find that happy medium on adapting to an environment that is constantly changing.

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