Sullivans Island is a residential beach community with single family homes adjacent to Charleston Harbor. Sullivan's Island has 7.70 km of beachfront.The dune field is wide and the homes are well back from the beach. The north end of the beach is highly eroded with groins and sandbags installed to protect property. The entire beachfront is developed and the nesting density is very low on the beach.

Nesting and stranding projects for loggerhead sea turtles are part of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Turtle Conservation Program. The Island Turtle team has approximately 120 volunteers who find and protect nests, 8 volunteers who relocate eggs and rescue disoriented hatchlings, and 3 volunteers who document strandings and rescue injured sea turtles. The project started in 1995.