A capacity crowd of concerned island residents gathered earlier this month to learn how coastal erosion on Assateague’s southern hook will directly affect Chincoteague's Island's future.
Chris Hein, a coastal geologist with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) based in Williamsburg, and Ioannis Georgiou, a coastal scientist with The Water Institute of the Gulf in Louisiana, delivered findings from their ongoing study in their lecture “An Island Shaped by Its Inlet: The Evolving Threat to Chincoteague” at the Chincoteague Center.
“Their presentation suggested the scale, urgency and technical difficulty of the work required to effectively address the issues,” said Chincoteague Town Manager Mike Tolbert.
Hein’s and Georgiou’s research is part of their Chincoteague Inlet Modeling Study (CIMS).
Over the course of decades, they explained, a buildup of sand at the bottom of the hook prevented the natural migration of sand to the thin spit of land that jutted from it, causing it to erode away.
It was this spit across the Chincoteague Inlet that gave the southern end of the island protection from waves and harmful storm surge.
Previously, waves coming off the spit had less distance to travel to the island. Thus, they were smaller in size and less impactful on the marsh area near the harbor.
Now, the widened inlet caused by the spit’s erosion has resulted in an increased water volume moving through this area, exposing Chincoteague to larger — and potentially stronger — wave action.
Hein said this increased flow now affects the island’s entire periphery, its tidal creeks and also its causeway. These effects are most noticeable during storms and other high tide events.
“By changing the size of the inlet, the island is exposed to more energy. It’s worse now as the waves are coming south to north from the inlet, as opposed to from east to west,” Hein said.
These changes have also affected nearby Wallops Island, home to the Wallops Flight Facility. With a significant investment in infrastructure, including rocket launch pads, it could be part of the remedy, according to Hein.
Several audience members expressed concern that Ocean City's measures to preserve its beach could have caused damage to the hook and spit.
Hein was quick to dispel this.
“It’s the natural growth of a totally natural system here … typical barrier island dynamics,” he said.
Hein added that tidal inlets are among the most dynamic areas on the entire planet, especially along Virginia’s coast. This goes hand in hand with the effects of sea level rise.
Hein pointed out that while land erosion is a cause for concern, sea level rise actually poses the greater threat to Chincoteague in the coming decades.
“This won’t happen all at once, but will occur gradually over time,” Hein said. “But 100 years from now, this landscape might look entirely different.”
