Along South Carolina’s coast, dolphins strand with unsettling regularity. Some arrive alive but weakened. Most wash ashore already dead. Regional responders told ABC News 4 that these events rarely point to a single cause. They reflect layered stress, built up over time, that finally overwhelms an animal at sea.

Illness That Turns Deadly

Disease sits near the center of many strandings. As the Post and Courier reports, necropsies often reveal pneumonia, infections, or extreme parasite loads.

Parasites are normal in dolphins. What changes is the immune system. When an animal is already stressed or fighting infection, parasites can spread rapidly. Feeding slows. Energy drops. Death can follow quickly, even when the dolphin still looks outwardly healthy.

Sometimes there is no single smoking gun. Multiple symptoms appear at once, leaving scientists to piece together a broader picture of decline rather than a clear-cut cause.

Toxins Stored Over a Lifetime

Living close to shore carries hidden risks. Dolphins absorb pollutants through prey and water, storing toxins in their blubber for years. The Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network has documented how these toxins can transfer to calves during pregnancy or nursing.

For newborns, that exposure can be fatal.

Even adults pay a price. Toxin buildup weakens immunity and makes routine infections harder to fight. Over time, resilience fades.

When Survival Strategies Backfire

South Carolina dolphins are famous for strand feeding, a coordinated hunting method described in Oceanography. Dolphins rush fish onto mudflats, briefly beaching themselves to eat.

It works—until conditions change.

Disruption from boats, people, or shifting tides can strand dolphins longer than intended. In shallow creeks and marsh edges, escape routes narrow fast. What begins as skilled hunting can end in exhaustion or fatal stress.

Pollutants can pass from mothers to calves.

Human Pressure in Shallow Water

Boats and fishing gear remain constant threats. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources warns that collisions happen most often where dolphins feed: tidal creeks, marsh edges, and nearshore channels.

Entanglement injuries may not kill immediately. They linger. Infections follow. Feeding becomes difficult. Some dolphins simply starve.

What Strandings Tell Us

Scientists quoted by the Post and Courier stress that a baseline level of strandings is expected each year, especially during calving season or migration.

But dolphins are sentinel species. When they strand, they reflect what is happening beneath the surface—changes in water quality, prey health, and human pressure.

Each stranding is not just a loss. It is a signal.

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