Local, USA

CORA BAIRD: Barrier islands are beaches offshore that slow down the ocean's energy and allow vast coastal systems to exist.

(light music) KAYLA CAHOON: The barrier islands out there, they're moving in three different ways.

Some of them are eroding.

So they're basically standing still, and the front side is just being eaten away.

Some of them are migrating landward, so you can see them actually shifting.

And some of them are curving.

So if they're like this, the land's here and the ocean's here, they're actually, like, curving around like that.

CORA BAIRD: If the barrier islands weren't there, we would have waves breaking on the mainland, and we wouldn't have any of the vast coastal areas like salt marshes that give us the rich fisheries and sense of identity that we have here on the Eastern Shore.