A Hilton Head Family Tradition Since 1993

For more than three decades, Dolphin & Nature Tour has shared the waters of Hilton Head Island with the families who come to discover them. The business was founded in March of 1993 by Captain Sonny and Mary Compher — a Hilton Head institution whose name became synonymous with dolphin watching done the right way: up close, unhurried, and led by people who genuinely love these waters.

Sonny and Mary built the company on a simple promise — that every guest should leave having truly seen and understood the dolphins, the salt marsh, and the wild beauty of the Lowcountry. After decades on the water, the founders have since retired, but the family tradition they started has never left the family.

From Deckhand to Captain

Today, Dolphin & Nature Tour is owned and operated by Sonny's nephew, Captain Ted Compher, and his wife Katie. Ted's connection to these boats runs deep: as a teenager, he spent two summers working for his Uncle Sonny as a deckhand, learning the creeks, the tides, and the rhythms of the resident dolphin pods firsthand. Years later, he and Katie made the decision to move south and carry the business forward — keeping it in the family and keeping its standards exactly where Sonny set them.

Ted has been running tours for thirteen years, ten of them as a licensed captain. In that time he's developed an extensive knowledge of the local waterways and wildlife — knowledge he shares freely on every cruise. Katie serves as the company's friendly nature guide advisor and scheduler, and after ten years in the business she still steps out of the office now and then to run a tour herself.

Still on the Water, Even on Our Days Off

What sets a family-run cruise apart is that the family never really leaves the water. Ted and Katie are raising two teenage daughters on the island, and on their days off you'll often still find all of them out on the creeks — usually with their two Boykin Spaniels along for the ride. Ted is an avid fisherman, and the time he spends exploring these waterways outside of work feeds directly into the local insight guests experience on every tour.

It's that lived, year-round connection to Hilton Head's waters — not a script — that makes a Dolphin & Nature Tour cruise feel less like a tour and more like being shown around by a local who knows exactly where to look.

Meet Our Captains

When you step aboard, you're in the hands of captains who have spent their lives on these waters — and who love sharing them.

Capt. Scott Hammet

Captain Scott has guided dolphin and nature cruises on Broad Creek since 2013, but his life on the water goes back half a century — to a first job on a shrimp boat out of Edisto in 1975. Since then he's earned a 100-ton Master captain's license and run just about everything that floats: a 90-passenger glass-bottom boat in Key West, a 110-foot paddlewheeler he brought around to Savannah, and a 75-foot topsail schooner he sailed to Cuba in 2016 — a voyage written up in Hilton Head Monthly.

Between adventures, he spent sixteen years as a water-quality scientist with South Carolina's Bureau of Water, studying the health of the coast's aquifers. In 2021 he graduated from the Lowcountry Master Naturalist Program — the credential behind the easy, deep knowledge of the marsh and its wildlife that guests hear on every one of his tours. (He's also a lifelong guitarist who, for a while, played sunset sets right on the boat.)

Capt. Tyler Gibble



Captain Tyler is a Hilton Head native and a seasoned boat captain with thirteen years navigating the Lowcountry's waters. He specializes in unforgettable dolphin tours and loves sharing the beauty of the coast. His local knowledge, friendly personality, and love for life on the water make every trip both relaxing and exciting.

Why Families Choose Us

• More than 30 years on Hilton Head's waters.
• A guaranteed dolphin sighting — or your next tour is free.
• Small, intimate boats and an unhurried, expert-led experience.
• A genuine local family who lives, fishes, and plays on these same waters every week.
• When you book with Dolphin & Nature Tour, you're not booking one activity off a long menu. You're stepping aboard with the family that has called these creeks home for over thirty years — and letting them show you Hilton Head the way they know it best.

Capt. Ted Compher, Owner

Capt. Ted Compher is the owner of Dolphin & Nature Tour in Hilton Head, South Carolina. He has spent thirteen years running tours on the island's waters — ten of them as a licensed captain — after first learning the creeks as a teenage deckhand for the family business his uncle founded in 1993. An avid fisherman with deep knowledge of the local waterways and wildlife, Ted lives on Hilton Head with his wife Katie, their two daughters, and two Boykin Spaniels who are never far from the boat.