WATER & COAST
Crab Island
Okaloosa County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast
A shallow sandbar in the bay just north of the Destin bridge, reached by boat, where people anchor to wade and swim.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Crab Island is not an island but a raised sandbar on the north side of the Destin bridge at the mouth of Choctawhatchee Bay, in water one to four feet deep. There is no road to it; people arrive by rented pontoon, jet ski or kayak, or on a shuttle boat from Destin Harbor, anchor, and spend the day in the water. Swimming out to it from shore is not advised because of the current in the pass. It is there because of an accident. In 1929 four local men, O. T. Melvin, Dewey Destin Senior, Arn Strickland and Dolf Weekly, dug a relief trench six feet deep during a storm to let water out of the bay. The pressure behind it tore the trench open to 1,300 feet and permanently cut the channel now called East Pass, which turned the bay from fresh water to brackish and gave this coast its clear green water. Army Corps dredging between the 1930s and the 1960s piled the spoil where Crab Island now lies, and for a while there were sand islands standing above the waterline. Hurricane Eloise washed the last of them away in 1975. Since 2018 alcohol sales on the water have been banned, overnight anchoring is not allowed and vessel speed limits are enforced
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