 In the late 19th century, the islanders began to become more dependent on harvesting crabs and oysters from the Chesapeake Bay.As the waterman livelihood became more important and more lucrative, there were often conflicts among the oyster dredgers and oyster tongers in the bay, and between those living in Maryland and those living in Virginia.Many people who live on Tangier speak a distinctive dialect of American English, Various scholars have disputed over how much of the dialect is derived from British English lexicon and phonetics.