Pat’s Wildways: Smith Island

Little did I know when I was in Belize a few weeks ago watching “60 Minutes” about Smith Island, Maryland, that I would soon see this remarkable place myself. My Fernandina snowbird friends, Diane and Ed, live much of the year in Cambridge, Maryland, and they invited me to visit when I was in the area. Lucky for me, Ed and Diane were due for an overnight visit with their friends on Smith Island, and I came along for the ride.

Smith Island is an unusual place for sure, and the people who live there have their own quirkiness resulting from families dating back to the 1600s on an island 12 miles offshore in the Chesapeake Bay, reachable only by boat. Well, Ed had the boat and a long history of visiting this island and relating to the handful of hardy people who call this place home. What an opportunity!

We put the boat in the water in the coastal town of Crisfield, a town that is facing recurrent flooding as sea level rises and storms increase. High-rise condominiums stood tall, but empty, as people shunned this place as the conditions deteriorated. Offshore in the three communities that make up the Smith Island group, the sea is rising and erosion is taking its toll there as well. This entire area is known for its traditional harvests of blue crabs that once occurred in massive amounts, and this fishery, along with oysters, accounted for the primary income of many residents. Now their low-lying island home is shrinking, along with the crab harvests. The 60 Minutes show claims that these folks may be among the first “climate refugees” in the U.S. But not if you ask these people. They have no intention of leaving, despite the state of Maryland offering to buy their homes and property.

My visit to Smith Island was eye-opening. We had the use of Ed and Diane’s friend’s home — fully furnished, comfortable and well stocked and located on one of the few streets in the Smith Island community of Tylerton. Less than 50 people live there year-round, when the weather is cold, stormy, and unforgiving. But when I was there, there was also an input of about a dozen others who were involved in a teacher training course presented by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation at their facility on the island. All of us no doubt made it to the one store, where sundries and some cooked food, like soft shell crabs, crab cakes and Smith Island cakes were for sale at the high prices expected in such a remote location. When we entered the store a couple of older women were sitting at a table and they greeted Ed with, “I haven’t seen you around before,” which was Smith Island speak for “Welcome back.” They have a habit of saying the opposite of what they mean — one of the many quirks arising on this insular island over the years.

Throughout our water journey we saw many “shedding sheds” where blue crabs are kept alive on water-filled trays and looked over three times a day to pick out those that have just shed into the delectable soft shell stage. Most of these sheds were inoperable and crumbling, along with many docks and buildings. Instead of hundreds of buoys floating in the water marking crab traps (pots), there were large stacks of pots stored on the docks. The crabs were not running and there was no sense wasting expensive fuel to fish for nothing. Although most soft shell crabs for sale in U.S. restaurants once came from this area, now many soft shells are imported from Asia — a different species of crab but still tasty.

My day on Smith Island was wonderful. In the evening, I watched the sun set over stacked crab pots and a local man in a golf cart (the main transportation there) drove up to me to point out the “turtle heads.” Sure enough, when I looked, there were scores of diamondback terrapins, only their heads showing, gathered in an area near a dock where a “crab picking” local woman tosses out the scraps. Nearby hordes of purple martins flocked into the houses created for them by the villagers.

That evening, I photographed a well-decorated home near ours and had no idea that that was where Mary Ada lived. Mary Ada is famous, starring in that "60 Minutes" show and many other shows and articles. She is one of the last remaining women on Smith Island who still makes the celebrated Smith Island cake, the state cake of Maryland. The next morning, lo and behold, Ed visited Mary Ada and got her permission for us to visit her while she was engaged in making a bunch of cakes for a festival in Crisfield.

If you ever get a chance to visit Smith Island, you'd better do it soon. The sea is rising fast in the Chesapeake Bay, and this place is only a couple of feet above sea level. But as long as a Methodist Church is still standing, people will still live there. It is home.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com