Skip to content
  • Scott "Junior" Stier yells "you're mean" as his friend ditches...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Scott "Junior" Stier yells "you're mean" as his friend ditches him while the sun goes down on Wednesday night in Tangier. Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Owner Terry, left, and Lance Daley, right, stock cooler units...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Owner Terry, left, and Lance Daley, right, stock cooler units at Daley & Son Grocery store on Tangier Island. The island has one grocery store and residents must place orders for specialty items to be brought in on the ferry. Friday, Aug.12, 2016.

  • A small plane is seen on the landing pad at...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A small plane is seen on the landing pad at Tangier Island Airport on August 10. Located in the lower Chesapeake Bay, Tangier Island has a population of under 700 and is only accessible by small plane or local ferry ride.

  • A street light with a small cross shines as the...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A street light with a small cross shines as the sun sets on Tangier island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Benjamin Patten-Dunivan, 11, walks barefoot while carrying his crabbing dip...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Benjamin Patten-Dunivan, 11, walks barefoot while carrying his crabbing dip net and bucket on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Florida residents Teri, left, and Charlie Myers, right, walk down...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Florida residents Teri, left, and Charlie Myers, right, walk down the secluded beaches to find a spot on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Thomas Pruitt, 13, rides his "chopper" style bicycle down the...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Thomas Pruitt, 13, rides his "chopper" style bicycle down the street on Wednesday, Aug. 10. Boosting of his cycle, Pruitt says it was hand-made and claims similar bikes to be worth $3,000 on eBay.

  • A seagull opens it's beak as the sun sets on...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A seagull opens it's beak as the sun sets on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Town manager Renee Tyler hangs up the phone after talking...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Town manager Renee Tyler hangs up the phone after talking with a resident while working from her office at the town hall. Tyler holds multiple responsibilities such as town maintenance, public concerns, collecting taxes and utilities and a general liaison between the mayor and town council. Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Town of Tangier mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge holds out one...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Town of Tangier mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge holds out one of the larger blue crabs from his catch on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Baltimore residents Lorraine, left, and Arthur Tripp, center, follow behind...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Baltimore residents Lorraine, left, and Arthur Tripp, center, follow behind local Alona Charnock, 10, right, as she pulls the skiff to shore on Uppards island. The Uppards was once a bustling community but due to a rapidly eroding shoreline, climate change and a rising sea level, the island became uninhabitable in the 1930s. Thursday, Aug. 12, 2016.

  • A golf cart carrying tourists rides past Parker Lane as...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A golf cart carrying tourists rides past Parker Lane as they receive a tour from a local on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Tara Daley, 9, looks behind her as she rides down...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Tara Daley, 9, looks behind her as she rides down the main street on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Derek Barbee 11, leaps off a dock pole into the...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Derek Barbee 11, leaps off a dock pole into the water on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • A waterman aboard Jill's Magic from Cambridge, MD organizes wooden...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A waterman aboard Jill's Magic from Cambridge, MD organizes wooden barrels as the boat rides through Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Colored crab pot buoys hang from a line outside of...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Colored crab pot buoys hang from a line outside of the mayor of Tangier's work shanty on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • A man rides a bicycle past a group of tourists...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A man rides a bicycle past a group of tourists walking along Main Ridge Road on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Sunlight shines over the water as a boat is tied...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Sunlight shines over the water as a boat is tied to a dock on Tangier Island. Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Marsh grass is seen flattened near the beach on Tangier...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Marsh grass is seen flattened near the beach on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • A small boat sinks into the marsh land on Tangier...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A small boat sinks into the marsh land on Tangier Island. Friday Aug. 12, 2016.

  • The sun sets behind a line of crab shanties off...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    The sun sets behind a line of crab shanties off Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Patsy, left, and Doug Young, right, take a break from...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Patsy, left, and Doug Young, right, take a break from the heat as they prepare their rental home, the Island Girl Getaway, to be rented to tourists for the upcoming week on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Two young men ride past on a motorized scooter as...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Two young men ride past on a motorized scooter as the sun goes down on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • The Loni Carol II sails off into the horizon carrying...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    The Loni Carol II sails off into the horizon carrying a group of riders off Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • A local youngster dunks the head of another boy as...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A local youngster dunks the head of another boy as the children swim off the docks on Tangier Island. Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Marsh grass grows through a sunken boat near the beaches...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Marsh grass grows through a sunken boat near the beaches of Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 1. Rapidly eroding shoreline, climate change and a rising sea level puts the island at risk to be completely underwater within the next 50 years forcing locals to abandon their way of life.

  • A line of houses stop as the land turns to...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A line of houses stop as the land turns to marsh on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • The Town of Tangier water tower is seen in the...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    The Town of Tangier water tower is seen in the distance on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • The sun begins to set behind a small bridge on...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    The sun begins to set behind a small bridge on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Town of Tangier mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge feeds a seagull...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Town of Tangier mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge feeds a seagull a whole crab on Wednesday, Aug. 10. Ooker calls himself an animal lover making friends with the seagulls, who sometimes wait nearby to retrieve a crab or two from his catch.

  • Seen from the ferry ride to the island is a...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Seen from the ferry ride to the island is a skyline consisting of boats, crabbing shanties, the local church, and the iconic water tower of Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Local Alona Charnock, 10, looks down at a fallen tombstone...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Local Alona Charnock, 10, looks down at a fallen tombstone found on the Uppards island just north of Tangier. Uppards was once a bustling community but due to a rapidly eroding shoreline, climate change and a rising sea level the island became uninhabitable in the 1930s leaving behind gravestones, debris and other remains.

  • A group of girls look over their shoulders at the...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A group of girls look over their shoulders at the sunset while swimming off a dock on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Rudy Shores waves to a passing boat while he works...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Rudy Shores waves to a passing boat while he works from his work shanty on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Residents riding golf carts and motorized scooters stop at an...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Residents riding golf carts and motorized scooters stop at an intersection as a four-door sedan makes a turn on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Two young men ride past the Four Brothers Crab House...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Two young men ride past the Four Brothers Crab House and Ice Cream Deck along Main Ridge Road in Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • A group of local boys climb the dock poles while...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A group of local boys climb the dock poles while playing as the sun goes down on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Two boys stand together on a dock pole before jumping...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Two boys stand together on a dock pole before jumping off into the water of Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Town of Tangier mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge drives his boat...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Town of Tangier mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge drives his boat to his work shanty on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Thomas Haynie, 11, left, guts a puffer toad as Benjamin...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Thomas Haynie, 11, left, guts a puffer toad as Benjamin Patten-Dunivan, 11, watches while the two were fishing off the docks on Tangier Island on Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.

  • Spotted clouds fill the sky as night falls on Tangier...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Spotted clouds fill the sky as night falls on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • A motorized scooter crosses a small bridge on Tangier Island...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A motorized scooter crosses a small bridge on Tangier Island as the sun goes down on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Alona Charnock, 10, looks over the water while riding to...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Alona Charnock, 10, looks over the water while riding to the mainland from Uppards island just north of Tangier on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • An American Flag flows in the wind as the ferry...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    An American Flag flows in the wind as the ferry transports passengers from Onancock Harbor to Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Alona Charnock, 10, walks along Uppards island north of Tangier...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Alona Charnock, 10, walks along Uppards island north of Tangier passing tombstones, old trailers and other debris left behind from the Canaan community. The Uppards was once a bustling community but due to the sea level rising and a rapidly eroding shoreline became uninhabitable in the 1930s. Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • A tombstone lays over a washed up trailer axel on...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A tombstone lays over a washed up trailer axel on the Uppards part of Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. The Uppards once was a bustling community but due to a rapidly eroding shoreline, climate change and a rising sea level became uninhabitable in the 1930s.

  • Many of the local's homes on Tangier Island haven been...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Many of the local's homes on Tangier Island haven been decorated with lawn ornaments varying from waterman, mermaids, animals and other coastal themed figurines. Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Derek Barbee, 11, left, looks at his brother Scott, 9,...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Derek Barbee, 11, left, looks at his brother Scott, 9, center, while Dakota Dunivan, 10, right, counts change for a customer while they sell hand-made items to tourists on Wednesday, Aug. 10 2016.

  • A couple holds each other as they cross a wooden...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A couple holds each other as they cross a wooden bridge while walking on a sunny day on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • A star filled sky is seen behind tall grass as...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A star filled sky is seen behind tall grass as it blows in the wind on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Church Pianists and secretary Nancy Creedle stands by her piano...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Church Pianists and secretary Nancy Creedle stands by her piano inside Swain United Methodist Church on Tangier Island on Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.

  • Local children hang out in an alley way with their...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Local children hang out in an alley way with their motorized scooters as night falls on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • The sun reflects in a puddle surrounded by marsh grass...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    The sun reflects in a puddle surrounded by marsh grass on Thursday, Aug. 11. Rapidly eroding shoreline, climate change and a rising sea level puts the island at risk to be completely underwater within the next 50 years forcing locals to abandon their way of life.

  • Church Pianists and secretary Nancy Creedle looks over filed paperwork...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Church Pianists and secretary Nancy Creedle looks over filed paperwork in the office of Swain United Methodist Church on Tangier Island on Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.

  • A full clothes line of towels dries in the wind...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A full clothes line of towels dries in the wind behind the Island Girl Getaway rental home on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2016.

  • Benjamin Patten-Dunivan, 11, swims with other children on the island...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Benjamin Patten-Dunivan, 11, swims with other children on the island on Thursday, Aug. 11. At five o'clock everyday the local children gather together at the ice cream shop and walk to the gas dock to play and jump into the water.

  • From left to right: Local children Dakota Dunivan, 10, Derek...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    From left to right: Local children Dakota Dunivan, 10, Derek Barbee, 11, and Scott Barbee, 9, sit outside a home selling hand-made items such as woven bracelets and painted seashells to tourists who visit the island on Main Ridge Road. Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • A plant grows through the marsh grass on Tangier Island...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A plant grows through the marsh grass on Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • A disintegrating puffer fish rests on the beach on Tangier...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A disintegrating puffer fish rests on the beach on Tangier Island. Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • The sun begins to set over the town of Tangier...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    The sun begins to set over the town of Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Town of Tangier mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge talks with ferry...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Town of Tangier mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge talks with ferry riders as it passes his shanty on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Tourists walk along Main Ridge Road after a ferry landed...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Tourists walk along Main Ridge Road after a ferry landed on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • Stacey Daley stands on Uppards island just north of Tanier....

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Stacey Daley stands on Uppards island just north of Tanier. Daley has discovered a record number of arrowheads and other debris left behind from the once bustling community of Canaan which due to rapid erosion, climate change and a rising sea level, died out in the 1930s. Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • The moon shines above a swordfish compass on top of...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    The moon shines above a swordfish compass on top of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation building on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • The shoreline of Tangier Island is seen from the water...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    The shoreline of Tangier Island is seen from the water on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Customers bustle in and out of the Daley & Son...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Customers bustle in and out of the Daley & Son Grocery store of Tangier Island on Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.

  • A cross sits in the marsh grass on Tangier island...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A cross sits in the marsh grass on Tangier island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Local children climb and swim along the wooden docks of...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Local children climb and swim along the wooden docks of Tangier Island. Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • Benjamin Patten-Dunivan,11, stands on the edge of a slab dock...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Benjamin Patten-Dunivan,11, stands on the edge of a slab dock shooting cans with his pellet gun on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • A star filled sky is seen behind the iconic Tangier...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A star filled sky is seen behind the iconic Tangier water tower on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

  • A clothesline flows in the wind near colorful decorative bouys...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A clothesline flows in the wind near colorful decorative bouys attached to a fence on Tangier Island. Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.

  • A sink lays near a fallen tree on the Uppards...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A sink lays near a fallen tree on the Uppards island just north of Tangier Island on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. The Uppards was once a bustling community but due to the rapidly eroding shoreline, climate change and a rising sea level became uninhabitable in the 1930s.

  • Benjamin Patten-Dunivan, 11, reacts while playing with other children on...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Benjamin Patten-Dunivan, 11, reacts while playing with other children on the island on Thursday, Aug. 11. At five o'clock everyday the local children gather together at the ice cream shop and walk to the gas dock to play and jump into the water.

  • Rudy Shores throws a crab into a bucket while working...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    Rudy Shores throws a crab into a bucket while working on his work shanty of Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

  • A resident mows his lawn behind a home off Main...

    Aileen Devlin / Daily Press

    A resident mows his lawn behind a home off Main Ridge Road on Tangier Island on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.

of

Expand
Author
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

Nearly every day, Carol Pruitt Moore hops in her small skiff and visits Uppards, an abandoned island just north of Tangier in the Chesapeake Bay.

She combs the wind-swept, rapidly eroding sod and silt shoreline and the remains of a once-robust community called Canaan that died out in 1930.

She always greets the graves of fellow Pruitts and others long gone, a few still marked by toppling headstones that face east toward Tangier Sound and the Eastern Shore 12 miles off, except when they’re swamped by high tides and storm surge.

Two days after Superstorm Sandy ripped up the East Coast in 2012, Moore visited Uppards again.

And, this time, some of those long-gone Canaan residents were there to greet her back.

“I saw a headstone just sitting in the sand, and I was like, ‘Oh, my Lord,'” Moore recalled. “And I got to the beach, there was human skulls just floating on the shore.”

Sandy had disinterred three complete skeletal remains, including those of a baby.

“You could see two buttons on her chest were still intact,” Moore said. “Teeth, hair combs — I found a little bit of it all up here.”

An archaeologist with the Smithsonian Institution dated the remains to around the Civil War, and removed them to Washington, D.C., for examination, she said. But in time they’ll be returned to Tangier for reburial.

Uppards once supported two other communities — Aces and Persimmon’s Ridge, she said — also lost over time to grinding storms and erosion.

Now, the growing concern among both climate scientists and Tangier residents is that the little town of Tangier is next.

And soon.

Climate change refugees

Scientists say the Chesapeake Bay has lost more than 500 islands to storms and erosion since the 1600s.

At one time, Tangier and Uppards were one big landmass, along with Goose Island farther north and Port Isobel to the east.

Since 1850, two-thirds of that landmass has been lost, shrinking into smaller bits.

And it’s shrinking still, storm by storm, at alarming rates — losing as much as 16 feet of shoreline a year.

In fact, a marine biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Norfolk estimates that accelerating rates of sea level rise could force residents to abandon Tangier within the next 50 years. Perhaps even 25 years.

When that happens, the state will lose its last inhabited island in the bay.

“The situation is actually very dire,” said David Schulte, lead author of a report on climate change’s impact on Tangier published in December in the journal Nature.

“Prior to my study, it didn’t get a whole lot of attention. And I think in general the local government, the state government probably thought they had, maybe, decades in which to try to deal with this. I don’t think they have that kind of time.”

A $4.2 million federal and state project to build a small sea wall to protect Tangier’s vulnerable harbor has been in the works for more than a decade, but it keeps getting delayed.

But to effectively extend the life of the islands, Schulte proposes an offshore breakwater system all around Uppards and along the remaining beach on the southwestern portion of Tangier. A rock jetty built in 1989 abutting the upper western shore has worked marvelously well to protect the tiny airport and sewage-treatment plant, officials say.

Then, Schulte suggests adding a sand beach/dune system between the breakwaters and the existing shoreline.

He also recommends restoring former upland ridges with dredged sand, then planting loblolly pines and other vegetation as anchoring material and seabird habitat.

He puts the cost at $20 million to $30 million.

The breakwaters would allow Uppards to do as it’s always done and protect Tangier from the battering blows of hurricanes, nor’easters and the incessant erosion of pounding waves.

For now, though, there’s no effort at any level of government to convert his proposal into action.

Yet, if nothing is done, he says, a culturally unique fishing community will soon be gone, its residents fated to become among the first climate change refugees of the continental U.S.

Nothing like it anymore

Tangier was founded in the early 1700s as a farming community. Residents still speak in a distinct accent often attributed to their Cornish forebears and their long geographic isolation.

Inhabitants turned to fishing in the 1800s, and now blue crabs provide the main income for watermen.

Today, Tangier is a working watermen village that draws leagues of tourists ferried in from the mainland every summer for fresh Chesapeake blue crab and an unplugged, laid-back lifestyle.

Some have begun to visit because they know what the island is facing.

“We wanted to come see it before it disappears,” said Teri Myers, a Maryland native now retired to Florida with her husband.

“It’s very charming,” Myers said. “I took some video of the crab shacks when we were coming in on the boat. I remember places like that from when I was a kid in Ocean City. Everything looked like that when I was growing up, and nothing looks like that anymore.”

Tangier Island itself is roughly 370 acres — about 700 acres including Uppards — but only about 80 acres is habitable. From the air, it’s shaped like a billowing triangular sail.

There’s a scenic beach stretching along the southwestern shore that locals avoid because of biting bugs, but it draws visitors to wade in the warm waters or watch the sunset.

In town, white clapboard homes are closely spaced along three north-south ridges that today lie a mere 4 feet or so above sea level. The ridges are connected by short bridges.

Three very narrow, paved roads run along the ridges, the only arteries through the island. The roads were once considered suitable only for bicycles and foot traffic, but lately residents have taken to zipping around in electric golf carts and motor scooters. The town once banned vehicles, but it now has at least a dozen cars and pickups.

Tidal creeks, called ditches or guts by locals, whipsaw through the island fringes.

Always, the bay’s brackish waters encroach, waterlogging backyards and graveyards, converting turf to marsh grass. When the $1.2 million state-of-the-art health center was built in 2010 along Main Ridge Road, it was placed on stilts.

Like its landmass, the island’s population has shrunk over several decades, from more than 1,000 to fewer than 500 today.

Increasingly, young people emigrate to the mainland once they graduate from the K-12 combined school. They leave for college, jobs or the military and rarely return.

Grocery store clerk Katie Mariano said her 19-year-old son just began training on a tugboat, a common alternative to the waterman’s life.

“So probably one or two years before he’s moving away,” Mariano said. “I see his point. There’s really nothing here for him, anymore. I mean, he’s gotten everything out of it that he could.”

Georgianna Parks, 22, grew up on the island and now studies international relations at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. She was back recently on summer break to waitress at the Fisherman’s Corner restaurant.

She loves spending summers on her home island to boat and fish, but said she doesn’t plan to make it her home again.

“Probably not, no,” Parks said. “It’s not for me.”

‘On our doorstep’

Town officials feel the urgency of saving the island, but they lack the resources to tackle the problem alone.

Renee Tyler managed the island’s airport for many years before she was asked to fill in as town manager until they found someone. That was 10 years ago, and she’s still on the job.

Her office is a modest white brick building next to the airport. It’s equipped with aging computers, a pair of powder blue bedroom slippers stacked on a shelf among sparse office supplies and a ringing phone that only she was in to answer.

“We basically feel like we’re the small fish in the ocean, pretty much,” Tyler said. “I honestly feel like we’re getting lost in the shuffle. Like we don’t really matter.”

But the town has a rich heritage, she said. In 2014, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, meaning it’s considered worth preserving.

“So we’re on the map,” Tyler said. “And I just can’t see how government can let us go by. I really don’t.”

The longtime mayor is a full-time waterman named James Eskridge who everyone knows as Ooker.

This time of year, Eskridge is working night and day, between his crab pots in the bay and his soft-crab tanks at his harbor shack.

He shares the shack with four cats he rescued as kittens when they washed in after a storm, clinging to a tree stump. He named them after conservative icons. He also has pet sea gulls flapping overhead as he sorts his molting crabs, or peelers, waiting for him to toss crab bits their way.

“This erosion’s been going on for years, but it’s on our doorstep now,” Eskridge said. “You pay more attention to it when it gets on your doorstep.”

Relocating the island population, as some suggest, is a bad option, the mayor said.

“We don’t want to,” said Eskridge. “This has been our way of life for a couple hundred years.”

Besides, he said, Tangier men and women have done their share of military service over the years, and it’s only right that the government return the favor.

Protecting the island, he added, will also protect significant federal investment throughout the years in new streets, new bridges, the new school building, the new health clinic and the new electric power plant.

“Yet they drag their feet to protect the island itself,” said Eskridge. “Now, if there was an endangered bird or something, it would get protected faster. Watermen are endangered, but they don’t count, apparently.”

Many residents don’t blame sea level rise for taking their island. Instead, they blame erosion and a sinking landmass.

Experts agree that land in this region is sinking from the combined effects of glacial rebound, the aftereffects of a meteor impact about 35 million years ago and subsidence as communities pump out groundwater. But they also say seas are on the rise as a warming planet expands the oceans and melts land-based ice sheets.

Some islanders have no interest in arguing the point.

“I’m not a believer in sea level rise, but if sea level rise is the angle it takes to get us a sea wall, I don’t care what they use,” said Moore. “Sea level rise, global warming, save the bugs — I don’t care. We need a sea wall. We need it now. We need it yesterday.”

Sink or save

The island may lose its appeal for young adults yearning for excitement and new opportunities, but not for their parents, grandparents and younger siblings.

The place can be deadly dull over the harsh winters, said store clerk Mariano. But in summer the tourists return, crab season jumps into high gear and kids “just normally stay overboard” at swimming holes.

Mornings, young boys climb into their small, secondhand “shovin’ boats” and paddle or pole along the ditches to check their secondhand crab pots or dip-net for fish and crabs.

They gather barefoot and bareheaded on a dock with fishing poles, roughhousing and cursing until their bait runs out.

They ride their bicycles, fat-tired “choppers” and motor scooters up and down the roads and across the footbridges, tracing looping circles around and around the island.

Around sunset, teenagers and adolescents alike climb atop pilings at the marina and leap into the harbor. Then they shimmy back up like monkeys and start all over again.

Evenings, while tourists are tucked into the two B&Bs that still operate on the island, young people gather to socialize on the covered deck of the Four Brothers Crab House across from the dock. They might move up the road to Spanky’s, a 1950s-style ice cream and fast-food shop owned and run by retired teacher Bryan King, who grew up on the island.

“The island was much bigger when I was smaller,” King said.

One resident calls Tangier “a good place to live if you’re in trouble.” When one of her sons died in military service, she said the whole town turned out in support when his body was returned. She didn’t have to make a meal for months.

Nancy Creedle was born in Newport News and raised in West Virginia. She moved to Tangier in 1992 when her husband, Wade, was hired as minister of the United Methodist Church. He died in 2010, and Creedle remained as church pianist and secretary. She raised two children who’ve since relocated to the mainland, and said she’s helping raise three grandchildren still on Tangier.

The congregation also has shrunk over the years, she said. And she hears growing anxiety from remaining parishioners about the island’s future.

“They’re very concerned, as well as myself,” said Creedle. “Like, where am I going? Am I going to stay here and sink with the island?”

Her message to decision makers about Tangier is simple: “It’s just home to people, you know. It’s a place where people live. It just needs to be saved. We don’t want to be homeless because we’re going under.”

Tyler said town officials haven’t broached the idea of leaving, even as a last resort.

“We haven’t discussed Plan B yet,” Tyler said. “I know there possibly could be a Plan B. But I think myself and everybody else just wants to wait it out and stay here until we’re forced to leave.

“I still have faith, though. That we’re going to get protection.”

If that’s to happen, experts say there’s little time to lose.

“Time is short,” said Schulte. “If we’re going to do something to save this island, we need to do it quickly.

“In my opinion, this is one of the jobs of our government — to do the big things for people that they can’t do themselves. … To build the interstate highway system, to put a man on the moon, to build the Hoover Dam. Now we’re having these climate change impacts, and I think our government’s going to have to step up.”

Dietrich can be reached by phone at 757-247-7892.