For newbies out there you may ask what is Crab Bank? It's a large sand island outside of Shem Creek and known for years as a wildlife sanctuary and home for thousands of nesting birds. Over the years with rising waters and storms it eroded down to very little. With lots of effort it was rebuild this past year into a 34 acre sand bank/island just down a bit from the original. Now, everyone is looking forward to our local brown pelicans, terns, black skimmers, oyster catchers and gulls to bring it back to life. That said in it's protections the DNR closes it to landings of any and all boats throughout the nesting season. Julie and I paddled over Wednesday to find DNR biologists putting up signage announcing it's annual closure. The official closure dates are March 15 thru October 15. That includes all exposed beach at high and low tide. That also includes the last of the original Crab Bank. Come another couple months this will be a interesting paddle to make. I highly recommend you make it at high tide so you'll be lifted up to get a better view across the bank. Bring some binoculars. Use Shem Creek landing preferrably on a weekday as access to the landing on a weekend is rather tough.
Have fun out there and stay wet.
Dan