Dolphin Encounter-Jekyll Island, Georgia


Photograph above by Flip Nicklin/Minden Pictures

Allow me to state, at the onset of this piece,
I do not recommend, nor do I encourage,
close encounters with wild animals.
Jeannine Schenewerk

 

For my husband and myself, there is one favorite destination for a bit of rest and relaxation, Jekyll Island, Georgia. This spot is indeed, one of the least known natural treasures in the United States. Jekyll is one of the barrier islands off the coast of Georgia, known as the Golden Isles. Seven and half miles long, and one and a half miles wide, Jekyll Island is a nature lover's Paradise. There are only ten inns on Jekyll, with eight of these located ocean side, and six hundred private residences. The island was purchased in 1947 by the state of Georgia, and by law, only thirty-five per cent of the island may be developed, leaving sixty-five per cent a natural conservation area. You wonÂ’t find bumper to bumper traffic, flashing neon signs, souvenir shops, nor fast food restaurants cluttering the island. Instead, you find magnificent live oak trees festooned with Spanish moss, forests floored with palmetto, salt-water marshes, and beautiful white sand beaches, accessed via ramps, which protect fragile, undulating sand dunes. Ten miles of beach are open to the public year round. These are some of the widest beaches in the world, at low tide. With ocean, shoreline, forest, and salt-water marshes, as habitat, you can imagine the wildlife to be found on Jekyll.

During one of our visits to Jekyll, we wandered over to Driftwood Beach, located on the northern side of the island. This white-sand beach is lined with fantastic pieces of the bleached–white driftwood, and is one of my favorite areas of the island. I was also interested in visiting Driftwood Beach in order to photograph people seining for shrimp. The shrimpers, usually in pairs, wade out into the ocean, waist or shoulder high, and with a seining net stretched between them, move perpendicular to the shoreline, capturing the shellfish. More often than not, when the shrimpers bring their nets to shore, I invariably lend a hand. They appreciate the help plucking the shrimp from the net, before the egrets, cranes, and gulls are able to rob them of their catch.

Bottlenose dolphins ply the waters off the coast of Jekyll. Further out from shore, you can glimpse the shrimp boats; trailing escorts of gulls marking their locations. If you look very closely, you can also spot the dolphinsÂ’ fins, appearing and disappearing, at the waterÂ’s surface, as they too trail the boats. Occasionally, the dolphins venture very near the shoreline, and follow along, and with, the wading shrimpers, or so we had been told. On this particular visit to Driftwood Beach, we witnessed this for ourselves.

As I stood taking pictures of the shrimping couples, my husband touched my arm, and when I turned my attention to him, he was pointing to another pair of seiners. I looked, and saw two bottle nose dolphins swimming slowly behind the shrimpers. As the seiners passed before me, one of them noticed my reaction to viewing the dolphins. She remarked to me that the dolphins came often, and after over ten years of visiting Jekyll, and seining for shrimp along Driftwood Beach, sheÂ’d never heard of anyone being harmed by them. It was all the incentive I needed. I handed my camera to my husband, whipped off my swimsuit cover-up, and waded in behind the passing seiners.

The dolphins swam in slow, graceful circles about me, gliding smoothly, effortlessly through the water. So close they came I could have reached out and touched them. I altered my course, and turned to slowly wade out further into the water, stopping when I had reached a depth of chest-high. With the palm of my hand, I gently slapped the surface of the water, and was rewarded by seeing the dolphins swim toward me. I lowered myself slightly, and they glided in, swimming together, then parting, and swimming separately, around me, sometimes pausing in their course, and visibly turning to better view me. So close they were, I could easily look into their eyes. They are remarkably beautiful creatures. I remained in their company for over twenty minutes.

Upon my return to the beach, I was addressed by a gentleman who had witnessed my dolphin encounter. He asked me, ‘What was it like?’ I replied, ‘Exactly the way you imagine.’ For me, the experience was one touched by a spiritual nature. I shall never forget it, nor shall I ever forget the feeling the experience generated within me.

I wonÂ’t make some impassioned plea for the protection of wildlife here, though IÂ’m tempted. I merely wish to state that we humans are but one group of inhabitants of this remarkable planet we call earth. Unfortunately, far too many human beings lack even the basic respect for our natural environment, and its incredible inhabitants. For the good of all life on earth, let us all respect, and strive to protect, nature, and all living creatures.

Jekyll Island, Georgia

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