Description
Settled since 1778 and populated by that first family's descendants, Tangier is one of two inhabited offshore islands in the Chesapeake Bay and a leading center for the pursuit of the bay's famed blue crab. But throughout its recorded history it has been disappearing. Since 1850, tiny Tangier has lost an average of eight acres of upland and marsh per year, and has thus already dwindled to a third of the size it enjoyed during the Civil War. Just in the past twenty years, erosion has also claimed the shoals and marsh that guarded the entrances to the harbor and densely settled Main Ridge. Today the island and its 470 residents are wide open to storms. A single strong hit could take it out. And while this physical drama has unfolded, Tangier's population is suffering a demographic collapse that threatens the feasibility of any government efforts to save it. Fall 2012 to Present
