In early October the KIPC hired Cap'n Chad, a local tour boat operator and dolphin expert, to take small groups out to see the local dolphin pod and hopefully to see them strand-feed.
Captain Chad Hayes is a South Carolina native, born and raised in Dillon. He spent the majority of his life learning about the ecology of his home state and continued his education by receiving a degree in Biology from Presbyterian College. While in college, Chad successfully completed several internships with private game plantations, USDA, and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. He trapped beavers, built duck blinds and nesting boxes, planted food plots for deer and turkey, trapped and relocated wild turkey for repopulation, tagged deer and bobcat for scientific study, and interpreted data collected along the way for public use.
In his professional career, he has accomplished many things. He has spent years conducting interpretive eco-tours and fishing charters around Charleston, taught high school at Summerville High, monitored soil and water for contamination as an environmental consultant, worked for the Department of Natural Resources as a Fisheries Biologist, hosted a television show, "SC Wildlife", and won a national competition on ESPN, "The Search for the Ultimate Outdoorsman".
He is an avid photographer, and his prints are popular amongst locals and tourists alike. His writings have been published in local and state publications and he currently writes a bi-weekly article for the Island Connection, the Kiawah-Seabrook newspaper.
