This is actually an existing cache that I had to move when the tree it was hiding in was chopped down. I archived the cache when I should have just disabled it. I had to move the cache a few yards and change the container itself. You are still looking for a cache near the beach access path at the parking lot for the inlet that connects the Intracoastal Waterway to the Atlantic Ocean. It is a popular feeding and breeding spot for Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin.
You need to be aware of what is going on around you because this is a really busy place. The cache itself is small and in plain sight. But you may well look at it and not recognize it as a cache. That's my clue.
The Charleston area has about 350 bottlenose dolphin living here year round. Although they are not present in the inlet at all times on all days, chances of seeing some here are very good. They often travel in pairs or singly and you can see them feeding, playing and traveling from one eating spot to another. There is usually at least one mother/calf pair living around the inlet.
Dolphin live to be about 40 years old...they have their first calf around the age of 15 with a gestation period of one year. Calves stay with their mothers for about 3 years. At that time, males will take off on their own, often finding another male with whom they become best friends for life. They only associated with females to hunt for food and for reproduction.
Females form close lifelong relationships with other females and socialize together as well as hunt and feed. The first baby usually doesn't survive because, as mammals, the calves are fed their mothers' milk. These first time mothers have been ingesting pesticides for their entire lives and those poisons find their way into their milk. First babies get 16 years worth of pesticide residue whereas the later calves only get about 4 or5 year's worth.
Dolphin feed on many kinds of fish...mullet is their favorite. You may see them leisurely snacking or aggressively herding fish into a confined space along the shoreline. Although they can hunt by themselves, they often work in groups of 2 to 12, creating a hunting party that corrals the fish to a confined area where they can't escappe. Then, seemingly without warning, the dolphin throw their bodies onto the sand, creating a wave full of fish. As gravity takes over and the fish fall, the dolphin (and sometimes the pelicans) are right in that wave snapping away. When the wave disipates, the dolphin heave themselves back into the water. They may do this once...or several times in the space of a few minutes. The entire out of water episode lasts about 3-5 seconds.
Known as strand feeding, dolphin and whales have been noted to do this on and off all over the world. However, the area between Awendaw to the north and Savannah to the south, is the ONLY place that strand feeding is actually taught by a mother to her calf. The calf then grows up to teach her own calf how to strand feed. And so on through generations. If a mother does not know how to strand feed herself, her calf never learns how....it is a mother/calf experience that a dolphin cannot learn simply by observing others doing it. Think about how complicated that is and how learning to hunt this way increases the chance of survival.
Strand feeding is most often seen at Captain Sam's Spit on Kiawah Island 1 to 2 hours before low tide and for an hour or 2 after. As more calves are taught how to strand feed, this behavior is being seen more often through the lowcountry. It has recently been seen several times at this inlet. Watch for the dolphin to swim back and forth, getting closer and closer to the shore....often the pelican keep a sharp eye on what is happening and will fly to the site seconds before the dolphin strand.
Although everyone loves to see a dolphin, you need to remember that these are wild animals, intent on getting food and protecting their young. They are anywhere from 330 to 1400 lbs of pure muscle...average around 700 lbs. You don't want to get in their way or take a chance that they will mistake your arm for a fish.
As a matter of fact, dolphin are a federally protected species. It is illegal to harass, feed, hunt, capture or kill any marine mammal. Federal guildeines recommend keeping a distance of 50 yds from dolphins and 100 yds from whales. This is for your protection as well as theirs. A lot of accidents can happen in the excitement of watching a strand feeding. If these rules aren't followed, you are breaking federal law and can be fined up to $100,000 and be imprisoned for up to a year. Local governments often impose additional fines.
There are No Swimming signs at the inlet. They mean it. The inlet has extremely strong currents and riptides. Although at low tide you may see seemingly endless sand bars at the mouth of the inlet...DO NOT walk out to them. You can be stranded and swept away in a matter of minutes. You would not be the first. You can get in the water once you go to the end of the inlet and turn left...just be sure you are far enough down the beach to be safe and you are swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, not the inlet.