A large number of the South Carolina coastal marshes were once rice fields. Rice, unless wild from a long time ago, is long gone.
However, the Alligator is still there. An old approximate ‘guess’ by the state was around 100,000.

The large ones are out in far marshes like this. But smaller ones can be found in any fresh water pond.

These photographs are from another recent day when things were quiet and I walked down to catch some ‘gator shots’.

This one was moving around slow by the ‘trunk’ that lets water flow out to the tidal marsh. It’s usually an easy place for them to fish.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.