An alligator found 20 miles off Georgia's coast likely was flushed from the Altamaha River by storm runoff, state authorities said today.
Researchers Monica Zani and Heather Foley were looking for North Atlantic right whales when they saw the 5-foot-long gator last Tuesday. Initially thinking it was floating debris or dead, they soon realized it was alive and still able to dive.
They shot some photographs and moved on, fearing any attempt to rescue the gator would result in its puncturing their inflatable boat.
According to Brad Winn, program manager for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Nongame Conservation Section. alligators are common along the salt and estuarine waters of Georgia's coast.
“They feed heavily on marine fish, raccoons and feral hogs in the marshes, and swimming in the surf is not an unusual observation,” he said. “On more than one occasion we have pulled stingray barbs out of
the cheeks of 12-foot males.”
This gator probably was in the Altamaha and was swept away by unseasonably cold water from heavy rains. Too chilled to swim back, the gator wound up farther out than normal.
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