Visiting Bodkin Island before it slips under the waves
![photo of island from a kayak](/media/posts/bodkin/20230816-IMG_2925.jpg)
Once home to farmland and pine trees, a heron rookery and nesting ducks, Bodkin Island is a rapidly-eroding speck in the Eastern Bay. It’ll soon slip beneath the Chesapeake’s waters.
![photo of eroding island](/media/posts/bodkin/20230816-IMG_2989.jpg)
August, 2023: All that remains of Bodkin Island is two clay islets and a wooden bulkhead backed by shells and riprap. The island’s last private landowner placed the bulkhead in the early 1980s, in an effort to protect the island from erosion.
![older nautical chart showing a larger island](/media/posts/bodkin/chart_1908.jpg)
Some 115 years ago, the island still had trees and an orchard. U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart, Chesapeake Bay Choptank River to Sandy Point, 1908.
![older nautical chart showing a larger island](/media/posts/bodkin/chart_12270_2023.jpg)
NOAA Chart 12270, Chesapeake Bay: Eastern Bay and South River, 2023.