The young alligator seen in the ocean in North Myrtle Beach on May 29 is alive and well, according to Morgan Hart, the alligator project leader for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
“He was relocated to the nearest public pond that was not on private property,” Hart said. “One of our law enforcement officers was able to capture him and determined that he had not been fed or doing anything other than being in a wrong place at the wrong time.”
There are some instances in which captured alligators are killed. Hart said that alligators have to be put down when they have been “fed by people.”
“We don’t allow relocation for adult alligators off of the property they were found on because they have strong homing instinct and they’ll come right back to where they started,” Hart said.
The nearly five-foot alligator was seen “body surfing” in the Cherry Grove area, Donald Graham, spokesperson for North Myrtle Beach, said.
“What we do allow is for the relocation of smaller alligators, juvenile alligators, because they haven’t established a home territory yet, or alligators that are traveling from one place to another and end up somewhere they shouldn’t be, they can be relocated to the closest body of water,” Hart said.
Seeing an alligator in the ocean is unusual, as the creatures are primarily fresh water dwellers, but they can ‘tolerate’ saltwater, according to the National Ocean Service.
The Department of Natural Resources was called around 3 p.m. on Sunday about the alligator, which was in the surf line near beach goers, Graham said.
The Sun News has requested information on how often alligators are euthanized in South Carolina under the Department of Natural Resources.
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