Agreed. All they accomplished was wasting research $$.
Ironically, I was positing the use of LIDAR for such research before the equipment was even small enough for a Cessna; in this era, there's no excuse whatsoever for a researcher not to use a LIDAR/GPR drone to narrow down a target area for hand search with limited resources...
Given the shoestring approach they were taking, they probably didn’t spend any grant money, but were strictly getting the cash from a TV, cable, or streaming channel.
Also, this is a pretty old show.