Crab Bank Restoration Turns Charleston Dredged Material Into Vital Coastal Bird Habitat

By Carla Teles

The restoration of Crab Bank in South Carolina transformed sediments removed from the Port of Charleston into a nesting island for coastal birds. The project used hydraulic dredging, recovered 35 acres of habitat, and points to an environmental alternative for millions of cubic yards removed annually from port navigable channels.

An island practically remade with dredged sediment became the centerpiece of an environmental project at the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, USA. The initiative was led by the Charleston District of the US Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and was completed in 2021.

According to the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the project restored the Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary, an area hit by Hurricane Irma in 2017. Between September and November 2021, about 660,000 cubic yards of sediments removed from dredging activities were deposited at the site to rebuild nesting habitat for coastal birds.

Sediment removed from the Port of Charleston became the base to rebuild Crab Bank island

The Port of Charleston is located in an estuary formed by the Cooper, Ashley, and Wando rivers, a region used for cargo transport, recreational navigation, and other maritime activities. To keep the navigable channels in operation, the port has undergone frequent dredging for more than 140 years.

Each year, between 2 million and 3 million cubic yards of accumulated sediments are removed from the port in maintenance dredging. Instead of treating all this material merely as waste, the Crab Bank project demonstrated that part of it could gain a concrete environmental function by being used to rebuild an important island for seabirds.

Hurricane destroyed nesting area used by thousands of coastal birds

Before the restoration, Crab Bank was recognized as an island of about 32 acres in the Charleston Harbor, near the mouth of Shem Creek, in Mount Pleasant. The site served as a resting, feeding, and breeding area for migratory and coastal birds.

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