The Legacy of Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary
When Crab Bank was finished in the Winter of 2022, we all crossed our fingers that the birds would return. It was a hulking sandbar without any vegetation or life and we put our trust that seabirds would want to return. The last time the Charleston Commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, the overseer of this project, saw Crab Bank up close was that winter. She had never seen a bird on the island and was as cautiously hopeful as the rest of us.
We brought her back to see it now.

When Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary was being engineered and rebuilt, the project was overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers and led by Charleston Commander Rachel Honderd.
The last time she saw the island up close was when construction was completed, and it was prior to the spring nesting season. Crab Bank was now 30 acres and several feet above the King Tide line. Made completely of dredged sand, it was like a desert in the middle of the Harbor- no grasses or shrubs. We were all relying on hope that this island would be the seabird oasis we needed it to be.
On May 24, 2024, we had the honor of bringing Ret. Commander Honderd out to see Crab Bank during seabird nesting season to see it as a thriving nesting island for the first time.
Today, Crab Banks has vegetation scattered about the island and it is covered in the nests of Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers and Least Terns. We won’t know until the end of the summer when SCDNR tallies the numbers, but it may end up being the largest colony of Black Skimmers in the state this year.
Notoriously skittish, Black Skimmers aren’t keen on nesting where people, dogs or other animals could disturb their ground nests. We often see the largest nesting colonies out in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge on the outer islands. It is a testament to the Charleston community that they respect Crab Bank as a protected seabird sanctuary throughout nesting season, staying away from the birds.
Thank you to the Army Corps of Engineers and Ret. Commander Honderd for working with the South Carolina Seabird Conservation team, SCNDR, Coastal Conservation League, Audubon South Carolina and the Coastal Expeditions Foundation to protect our natural heritage along our ecologically important shoreline.

