On Friday (January 18th), I must have set my decoys in the middle of a shad or herring run because bottlenose dolphins were all around me. It actually gave me something to look at during this nearly duckless season we're having. Then I noticed a single animal that eventually fed into my decoys. This guy didn't have the usual hook on its back so I took a couple of pictures hoping to look it up when I got back home. As much as I try to be aware of the nature around me, I never paid much attention to the marine mammals we get in SC so I did some internet surfing when I got hom.
Best I can tell it's a Harbor Porpoise and pretty south of its usual range. I did look up marine mammals on the SCDNR page and they list a handful of porpoise species but they all have much larger dorsal fins.
The best picture I got...he never showed his face above water like bottlenose will often times do and seemed to be very solo. Anyway, I thought it was interesting and will try to find the right person at DNR to ask about this.
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