Excerpt from bayjournal.com
Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay has long been engaged with a battle against erosion and rising water. Has its salvation been skulking just offshore this whole time?
Two potential projects would deploy oysters, one of the cornerstones of the island’s seafood-based economy, as protection against land-devouring waves and storm surge. Both are in the early stages of development.
The efforts would construct oyster reefs close enough to the shoreline for the structures to be above the water’s surface during low tides and at least partially during most high tides. The result would be a kind of living wall that could deflect wave energy.
Tangier Island, Virginia’s only inhabited island not connected to the mainland by a bridge, has drawn media attention from around the world as an early battleground in the fight against sea level rise. One scientific forecast suggests that the island’s 400 residents will be forced to leave in about 30 years as the remaining dry land converts to saltmarsh.
