Tybee Island's estuarine confluence—where the Savannah River meets the Atlantic—creates one of the Southeast's most reliable dolphin habitats. Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, navigate these brackish channels year-round, their population density peaking between April and October when water temperatures exceed 21°C and prey schools concentrate near the tidal inlets. Marine biologists estimate that more than 200 individual dolphins frequent the waters within three nautical miles of Tybee's north shore, a density unmatched along Georgia's 100-mile coast. The best Tybee Island dolphin tour departs from the Old US Highway 80 marina district, where operators maintain daily schedules from 9am through late afternoon. Sightings occur in 92% of outings during peak season, with morning departures offering calmer surface conditions and improved visibility into the water column. Pods of three to twelve dolphins hunt cooperatively in the Lazaretto Creek channel, employing a technique called strand feeding—driving mullet and menhaden onto mudflats before lunging sideways to secure prey. This behavior, documented in fewer than six Atlantic coastal populations, unfolds within 400 meters of tour vessels and constitutes one of the most observable examples of learned marine mammal foraging. Tybee's dolphin tourism infrastructure emerged in the early 2000s alongside federal Marine Mammal Protection Act guidelines that standardized approach distances and engine protocols. Operators today follow strict 50-yard buffer zones and idle-speed parameters when within 200 feet of animals, ensuring that observational pressure does not disrupt nursing mothers or juvenile play groups. The tours traverse Little Tybee Island's uninhabited western shore, where ospreys nest in snags above the wrack line and diamondback terrapins sun on cordgrass hummocks. Each voyage covers six to eight nautical miles, threading through the Romerly Marsh Hammocks and past the ruins of Fort Screven's offshore battery, where dolphins often investigate the submerged casemates. Captains narrate the ecology of the salt marsh estuary, explaining how lunar tides flush nutrients through spartina stands and support the forage base that anchors the food web. The confluence zone sustains not only dolphins but also brown pelicans, loggerhead sea turtles during nesting months, and seasonal right whale calves that pass offshore en route to calving grounds. This layered marine biodiversity, compressed into a navigable corridor barely two miles wide, has positioned Tybee Island as the region's preeminent site for accessible cetacean observation.