ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A certain mystique laps upon the shores. Even in the dead of winter on the Chesapeake Bay, there are still plenty of signs of life.

"This time of year, I notice how clear the water is," said Beth McGee, who has spent decades studying the nation's largest estuary.

On the surface, things may look calm here. However, this watershed, which touches six states and spans over 64,000 square miles, is sick.

"All told the bay is still struggling," said McGee, who works for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Every year, the nonprofit gives this waterway a grade based on how healthy it is. This year, it received a D+.

"Climate change is making our restoration efforts more challenging. More severe storms are bringing more pollution into the bay," McGee said.

What’s happening here has become a case study on just how hard it is to clean up and restore vital watersheds and estuaries, as well as reverse the impacts of pollution and global warming even as costly plans are being put in place nationwide to push back against climate change.

Environmentalists first started realizing how polluted the Chesapeake was back in the 1970s. By 2010, government agencies, nonprofits and environmentalists started taking action to clean it up.

"People across the country were saying, 'We need to watch this,' because they are setting themselves up for success. They have plans. They have accountability that no other watershed has had," McGee added.

Thirteen years later, though, progress has been slow.

Across the lower 48 states, there are 78 major watersheds, essentially basins catching water from rivers as they hit the sea. But of the more than 700,000 miles of waterways in the US, nearly 51% are impaired by pollution.

"One hundred years ago, people didn’t give rivers and streams much thought," explained Matt Ehrhart with the Stroud Water Research Center. "Clean fresh water is one of the most vital resources we have."

Ehrhart says that these days, most pollutants in our nation's watersheds come from agriculture. Fertilizers and pesticides used on crops often run off into nearby rivers and streams. There are other causes, like runoff from the road salt we use in the winter.

"It’s critical the way we live on the landscape doesn’t unduly impact those resources," he added.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A rare speckled lobster named Freckles will soon go on exhibit to the public as a welcome addition to the Virginia Living Museum's Chesapeake Bay Gallery.

Spared from a pot of boiling water, the new star of the museum now sits inside a cozy saltwater tank.

"As a person who loves all lobsters, it was very exciting," said Britt Sorensen, the museum's training and enrichment coordinator.

This lobster is, simply put, lucky.

"Lobsters are typically underrated," Sorenson said. "People usually just walk by and think that it's tasty or looks scary."

But what passersby will soon see on display is Freckles, who is adorned with golden speckles.

"This lobster is incredibly rare. It's a calico sort of orange and yellow, and it only happens in 1 in 30 million, which is ridiculous," she said.

The curiously-colored crustacean recently caught the eye of the cooks at a Red Lobster in Manassas, Virginia.

"They saw him and thought, 'This is not normal; this is new and special,'" Sorensen said.

Special enough to be spared from being served as a meal with the restaurant's famous Cheddar Bay biscuits. Red Lobster called the conservation experts instead.

"It's really great they saw that an opportunity to help this animal out and give him a home and contribute to the education of natural things," Sorensen said.

Sorensen says Freckles's speckles come from a protein deficiency, which also makes him prone to predators.

"This coloration shows more than a green, blue or brown coloration," she said.

There's no word on Freckles's age or how big he will get, but one thing Sorensen can confirm is that he's savvy and smart.

"Lobsters are incredibly intelligent - some scientists think as intelligent as an octopus," she said.

Freckles will now get used to his new home in a quarantine period before showing off his snazzy shell to the outside world.

This story was originally published by staff at WTKR.