A life saved, but deal with gators

The phrase "the right place at the right time" has rarely fit so well as it did Sunday when five local nurses just happened to be on the scene after a large alligator bit off a man's arm near his shoulder in Lake Moultrie. And when the General Assembly goes back into session in January, the time should be right for it to finally pass a law establishing an alligator hunting season in South Carolina.

As reported in The Post and Courier, the nurses had gone to the lake as part of a three-day religious celebration. Thus, one of the nurses understandably called "a miracle" their timely presence, roughly 50 yards from where 59-year-old Bill Hedden was attacked while snorkeling at the Short Stay recreation camp. A nurse's discovery of a towel during the emergency also was incredibly fortuitous.

Though Mr. Hedden lost his arm, he didn't lose his life - thanks to the nurses' decisive actions.

While the nurses' response was uplifting, the incident also offers a reminder of how important it is to take proper precautions when enjoying nature. Warning signs in the Short Stay area prohibit swimming and diving. Another sign reads: "Beware of Alligators."

Feeding alligators is another prohibited activity. When alligators are conditioned to associating humans with food, the dangers to the both species are significantly increased. When the alligator population rises, as it clearly has in our state over the last two decades, thinning their numbers by creating a hunting season makes sense.

Earlier this year, Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, who has witnessed Lake Moultrie's gator glut first-hand, introduced a bill to do just that. Modeled after Georgia's alligator-hunting season, it passed the Senate before getting hung up at the committee level in the House. Sen. Grooms told us Tuesday that he's confident it will make it all the way through in the next session.

In previous years the S.C. Department of Natural Resources had opposed a hunting season for alligators, which were removed from the federal endangered-species list two decades ago and are now classified as a "threatened" species. However, DNR scientists helped write Sen. Grooms' bill, which would mandate 1,000 permits for a month-long season. Sen. Grooms said the regulations governing the hunting season would be fine-tuned in coming years not by meddling legislators but by DNR experts, pointing out: "The bill would authorize them to make needed changes annually."

For now, though, the most needed change is for the Legislature to pass Sen. Grooms' bill so that the number of alligators in South Carolina - and the dangers they present - can be reduced. Meanwhile, Bill Hedden has ample reason to be thankful for those five nurses who were in the right place at the right time.