Strand Feeding
by Sophia McAllister
“A true conservationist is a man who
knows that the world is not given by his
fathers, but borrowed from his children.”
John James Audubon
Thirty years ago, my family and I were new
to Kiawah and we explored as much of it as possible during
our trips here from Ohio. My 7-year-old son loved to
watch dolphins swimming in the tidal creeks so we arranged
for a canoe trip on the Kiawah River.
We set out from Beachwalker Park and paddled to
Captain Sam’s Inlet on an outgoing tide. On our return, we
got out on the sandbank in the river’s bend to swim. Before
we could beach our canoe, a pod of dolphins initiated a
display of splashing and heaving of bodies that stopped us
in our tracks. We watched in amazement (and with some
trepidation) as they proceeded to drive a school of fish and
themselves out of the water and onto the sloping sandbank.
The dolphins grabbed as many fish as possible before
53
54
lurching back into the water. They repeated the behavior
several times before leaving for other parts of the river.
That was our introduction to strand feeding, a
behavior of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins that is unique to a
small area of the southeastern United States coast. Since
then, watching for strand feeding has been at the top of our
to-do list when friends and family come to visit. Although
we’ve now seen this behavior many times over the years, it
has never become commonplace.
There is not a great deal of scientific research
regarding strand feeding. The evidence is primarily
anecdotal and comes from people who live on the water
and have observed the dolphins over a period of time.
However, there is consistent data indicating the behavior is