11 Most Endangered
Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks
Year Listed: 2002
Location: Maryland
Current Status: Endangered
Threat: Deterioration, Natural Forces
Constructed between 1886 and 1956, wooden skipjacks with their brightly decorated trailboards, represent a time when the natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay contributed greatly to the economy of not only Maryland but the whole Mid-Atlantic region. However, as the bay's oyster population plummeted, so did the skipjacks. Additionally, the high cost of maintaining a wooden boat has caused the fleet to disappear one by one. Once numbering nearly 1,000, today there are only about a dozen skipjacks remaining in commercial use.
Update
Threatened by severely diminishing oyster harvests and a vanishing way of life, the commercial fleet of working skipjacks has been reduced from 2,000 boats in 1900 to less than 15 boats today. Only one or two skipjacks dredged for oysters under sail in 2006. A taskforce appointed by Maryland Comptroller William Donald Schaefer is no longer active. The once-impressive Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s skipjack restoration project is stalled. The National Trust, Preservation Maryland, Maryland Historical Trust, Save America’s Treasures, and others are working to bring financial and technical resources to the support the rehabilitation and continued use of these endangered, nationally significant symbols of Maryland's maritime past. However, most of the remaining skipjacks are idle or on exhibit as museum artifacts.
