Last year, a graduate student with the College of Charleston and the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network (LMMN) conducted a scientific study on the best distance visitors should stand from strand-feeding dolphins. The results are in.
For years, LMMN has suggested that visitors remain at least 45 feet back from the water’s edge, but the study set out to test that guideline scientifically. Conducted on Kiawah Island, the research found dolphins displayed more disturbance behaviors—such as chuffing, tail slapping, leaving or not feeding—when visitors were closer than 45 feet. Dolphins also shifted their feeding location away from Kiawah Island and fed more often on Seabrook Island when people were too close.
The findings confirm that keeping a 45-foot distance is ideal to allow dolphins to feed undisturbed. They also highlight the importance of having educators on the beaches to encourage bystanders to step back. The study will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal soon, and results will be shared once available.
Since 2018, LMMN has run a visitor education program at Captain Sam’s Inlet to inform the public about dolphins actively feeding there throughout the year. These dolphins participate in a unique behavior called strand feeding, where they temporarily “beach” themselves to catch fish along the shore.
Educators recommend that bystanders remain at least 45 feet back when dolphins are present to prevent disturbance. Dolphins are aware of people and can alter their behaviors or feeding locations based on human presence, proximity and group size. While estuarine dolphins strand feed throughout the Lowcountry, those at Captain Sam’s Inlet are uniquely affected by land-based wildlife viewing.
To preserve strand feeding at this location, visitors on both Kiawah and Seabrook islands must give dolphins the space they need to feed undisturbed. Chronic disturbances could alter or even shift this behavior away from Captain Sam’s Inlet.
Do your part: view from a distance, and share this information with others. To learn more about strand feeding, visit lowcountrymarinemammalnetwork.org/what-we-do. To volunteer with the program, email Lauren at kiawahdolphineducation@gmail.com.