With the shrimping industry at an all time low and on the verge of extinction due to several years of severe weather, the hurdle of having to wait for high tide to enter and exit the creek has been eliminated.

With a freshly dredged creek, the shrimp trawlers and fishing vessels will once again be able to safely enter and leave at all tides. Shem Creek supports the last commercial shrimp and fishing fleets in Charleston Harbor, and, right now, fleets could only get safely out of the creek at high tide. Shem Creek is one of the most popular recreational and commercial boating spots in Charleston, so why dredge it? The channel is 90 feet wide and dredged to 12 feet deep. The Shem Creek portion of the project starts at the end of Sullivan’s Island and runs through Mount Pleasant Channel and makes a right turn into Shem Creek at Haddrells Point and ends at the Coleman Boulevard bridge. Shem Creek is part of the overall Charleston Harbor project. The dredge Richmond is 130 feet long, 28 feet wide and has more than 2,000 horsepower of pump and generators installed. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District.

No, it is not a prehistoric sea creature, just the sixteen inch diameter cutter head dredge Richmond doing its job for the U.S. An unusual creature is in Shem Creek-it’s green and orange, it’s loud, belches smoke and has a five mile long tail.

Hand-dredged creek