Monday, May 21, 2012

Chesapeake Bay slowly swallows up Tangier Island, Virginia


TANGIER ISLAND -- From the air, this fishing outpost in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay for centuries resembled a giant fishing hook, a curved barb completing the picture on the northern tail of the island. 

 But no more. The barb is gone, swallowed by a rising bay and fast-eroding land.

Now, Tangier Island just looks like a big oval teardrop.

Locals here worry that the one-two punch of higher sea levels and sinking land will doom them, too, drowning their homes and way of life, along with about 400 years of Virginia history and culture.

In the 1980s, a seawall of boulders was erected along a stretch of the western shore of the island, and it has succeeded in keeping a small airport and the town's sewage-treatment plant from being lost to the Bay.

Read more:  http://www.delmarvanow.com

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