Special Report: The fight to save Tangier Island, a cultural gem in the Chesapeake Bay

Aerial view of Tangier Island (WAVY Photo/Tom Schaad). Retrieved from news.yahoo.com

Legendary oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau once said “we forget the water cycle and the life cycle are one.”

Those two forces collide when describing the fate of a shrinking fishing village 14 miles from the Eastern Shore — one of the last of its kind in the Chesapeake Bay. Erosion and sea level rise have already swallowed two-thirds of Tangier Island since 1850, leaving little time to save a way of life.

This one square mile patch of the past is known by the bounty of its encroaching waters.

“Tangier has the title of soft crab capital of the world,” said Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge, who mostly blames erosion for the loss of land over the decades, downplaying the effects of rising seas from climate change.