>> reporter: businesses like faidley seafood in baltimore, maryland are directly dependent on the bay'sverall well-being. >> well, without the oysters, we don't have anything. we need that oyster to siphon and clean the water in the chesapeake bay. >> reporter: dami hahn is the fourth generation running faidley's. >> 100 years ago, our oyster population could do it in 20 hours. our current oyster population takes nearly a year to do the same job that it could do in 24 hours. we can't do what we do in providing fresh local without fresh local. so the health of the chesapeake bay is key to our success. it's key to our future. >> reporter: the faidley family has owned and operated the market for more than 130 years. >> through the 1800s, early 1900s, the oyster industry was really what defined baltimore. a lot of areas would back fill with oyster shells. they used crushed oyster shells. so we were using the shells, not realizing that they needed to go back into the bay. >> reporter: it wasn't until the 1950s when scientists discovered the link to the bay's declining >> we were depleting ou

>> reporter: businesses like faidley's are dependent on the bays' overall well being. >> without the oysters we don't have anything. we need that oyster to clear the water in the chesapeake bay. >> reporter: dayme hahn is the fourth generation running faidley's. >> 100 years ago our oyster population could do it in 24 hours. our current population takes nearly a year to do that same job that it could do in 24 hours. we can't do what we do and providing fresh local without fresh local. so the health of the chesapeake bay is -- is key to our success, it's key to our future. >> reporter: the family has owned and operated the market for more than 130 years. >> through the 1800s, early 1900s, the oyster industry was really what defined baltimore. a lot of areas would back with oyster shells, they used crushed shells. so we were using the shells, not realizing that they needed to go back into the bay. >> reporter: it wasn't until the 1950s when scientists discovered the link to the bay's declining health. >> we were depleting our supply, and that these oysters needed old oyster shells in o