Tiny U.S. Island is Drowning. Residents Deny the Reason

As Tangier Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, sinks and the surrounding water rises, its marshland is drowning, steadily giving way to open water.

Crabbing and oystering are the main occupations for watermen on Tangier. In the new book Chesapeake Requiem, author Earl Swift describes the anxiety the islanders feel as their home gets smaller and smaller.

The grave of Margaret A. Pruitt, who died in 1901, lies at the water's edge at Tangier's northern tip, once home to a settlement called Canaan that has long since washed away.

Tangier Island has lost 8 acres a year to rising sea levels since 1850.