Deal Island, MD

Deal Island is a small, 3-mile-long island off the coast of Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay. This watermen’s town is home to a few remaining fishing boats called Skipjacks—designed near the end of the 19th century and used on the Chesapeake for oyster dredging. With wide hulls, these boats are able to navigate the bay’s shallow waters with a small crew. Today, very few Skipjacks remain as working vessels, mostly due to the declining productivity of oyster beds.