GUIDEPOSTS
Crab Bank: For the Birds
October 11, 2025
For the first time since 2017, Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary is alive with the wingbeats and calls of nesting pelicans. While other species immediately returned to Crab Bank to nest after it was rebuilt, pelicans waited until native shrubs took hold on the island to provide them the necessary cover. In mid-summer, dozens of Eastern Brown Pelicans returned to nest on this small island in Charleston Harbor—a sign that the restoration effort is doing exactly what it was meant to do.
This late nesting means that there are still fledglings on Crab Bank past that date that Crab Bank usually reopens to visitors (below the high tide line).
Crab Bank was rebuilt with one purpose: to give coastal birds a place to thrive. Created as a seabird sanctuary by South Carolina DNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it stands as a safe haven where threatened species can nest, raise young, and find refuge away from human disturbance.
On Friday, October 10, Coastal Expeditions asked SCDNR Wildlife Biologist Janet Thibault to speak to our naturalists about the late nesting pelicans and the decision by SCDNR to partially close the island to visitors past October 15 to allow the pelican colony to fledge. Her nesting data solidified our thoughts that going to Crab Bank while birds are nesting goes against our mission of environmental education and protection of wildlife.
If you have questions, please contact Chris Crolley by reaching out to info@coastalexpeditions.com.
