Tag Archives: Beaufort County
80-year-old shrimper still selling catch to St. Helena’s Gay Fish Co. ‘Kids won’t do this’
With muscly tan forearms that belie his age, Jim Buchanan hoists a 60-pound basket of white shrimp fat with roe onto the dock at Gay Fish Co. on St. Helena Island. “It’s hard work and, if you don’t like it, good God, it would be absolute misery,” Buchanan says. Buchanan, who is 80, won’t retire, he says with a smile, “Until somebody finds me on the back deck.” He enjoys being on the ocean and the hard work. Buchanan is one of five captains who own boats that dock and sell their catches at one of the surviving docks — Gay Fish Co., a St. Helena Island landmark that turns 75 this year, making it one of the oldest shrimping businesses in Beaufort County. Video, Photos, >click to read< 07:57
Beaufort County shrimpers netting big white shrimp as season opens. ‘Thankful everyday’
Craig Reaves loves his office: The southern coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The owner of Beaufort-based Sea Eagle Market was among 20 shrimp boat captains who were at work Thursday, plying the waters near Pritchards Inlet near Fripp Island. It was opening day of the commercial shrimp trawling season, which is a big deal in a state where shrimp is the favorite Seafood and cities name festivals in honor of the delicious crustaceans. Nets dragged the bottom of the ocean catching big early-season white roe-shrimp. When the fishing day is done, this variety will usually fetch higher prices. “We serve a mighty God so we’re thankful everyday we get to come to work every day in the ocean,” Reaves said. “Beautiful.” >click to read< 07:55
S.C. Lawmakers set aside $3.2M for projects. Where the money’s going? Some to Port Royal’s shrimp docks
A handful of local projects will see at least $3.2 million in state tax dollars, thanks to money earmarked by Beaufort County legislators in the state budget was approved over objections from S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster. Among the projects receiving the money are Port Royal’s shrimp docks,,, In the state budget, lawmakers designated a total of $900,000 for repairs and redevelopment of a town-run shrimp dock in Port Royal, where seafood processing operations will be suspended after years of financial losses. “It’s the only publicly owned shrimp dock on the eastern coast of the United States,” said Rep. Shannon Erickson, a Beaufort Republican who sponsored the earmarked money. >click to read< 11:03
How a diverse band of locals won Beaufort County’s biggest environmental battle
“It’s Official! Plans Announced,” screamed a banner headline in The Beaufort Gazette of Oct. 2, 1969. BASF, the international chemical giant based in Germany, announced it was going to build a $100 million petrochemical plant on Victoria Bluff near Bluffton. It would expand to an industrial complex with an investment as high as $400 million, the biggest manufacturing fish ever landed by the state of South Carolina, even for that era of New South boosterism. The political hierarchy of Beaufort County and Columbia was euphoric. It would cure the abject poverty in the county — where it was reported that children had worms, and adults were malnourished and illiterate.,, The Capt. Dave shrimp trawler remains the lasting image of the fight. She chugged into Beaufort County history with a 777-mile, week-long trip from Hilton Head to Washington, D.C., in April 1970. The 43-foot boat was a symbol of a small band taking on an opponent the size of an aircraft carrier. It was a symbol of Lowcountry life and clean water. Its mission was to deliver petitions against the plant to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Walter J. “Wally” Hickel. Read the story here. 09:08
The Snobby Neighbors of Beaufort County – Jellyfish Company Files Suit, Video
When jelly-fishers wanted to do business in Beaufort County, not all neighbors were supportive. Groups against the jelly-fishing are still speaking-out against an operation nearly a year later. The groups want to stop a company from unloading and rinsing cannonball jellyfish waste water into Jenkins Creek. However, that company is now suing Beaufort County over an ordinance that makes doing business harder. Video, and read the rest here 07:24
