Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2021

28 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.VOICEofMPpodcast.com C aptain Chris Crolley first became familiar with Crab Bank island in 1992, paddling out often during his early 20s. Crolley, a local naturalist guide and owner of Coastal Expeditions, Inc., recalled a time when he witnessed a bald eagle flying overhead at Crab Bank that startled a flock of roosting brown pelicans so massive that when they flew off it temporarily obscured the sun. That was back when thousands of birds still nested there. Now this shrinking spit of land has nearly vanished, diminished to what Crolley described as an “ephemeral sand bar that is almost completely underwater at low tide.” But that’s about to change, thanks to a public-private partnership that includes Audubon South Carolina, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the Army Corps of Engineers, environmental stewards such as Crolley’s Coastal Expeditions Foundation (CEF), local businesses and citizens. All have collaborated on the project to restore this once thriving bird rookery located near the mouth of Shem Creek that succumbed to erosion. When rebuilt, Crab Bank will once again house thousands of nesting coastal birds and protect the Mount Pleasant coastline and homes from wind and water, delivering a win-win for birds and people. Crab Bank has always been a dredge spoil island, originating from Charleston Harbor dredge material sometime in the 1950s, says SCDNR Office of Environmental Programs Director Lorianne Riggin. SCDNR, which owns and manages Crab Bank, BY COLIN MCCANDLESS A Collaborative Conservation Effort to Help Revitalize Critical Mount Pleasant Seabird Rookery Rebuilding the Crab Bank Photo by Nolan Schillerstrom. A lone brown pelican standing on what is left of Crab Bank in 2018 after rising water levels, wash-overs from storms and large boat wakes took their toll on this once thriving seabird sanctuary.