Tag Archives: Jim Buchanan
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
A ‘Gentle Giant’: Shelburne fisherman dies at sea
A fisherman who fell from a fishing boat into the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Sable late Saturday afternoon has died. Shelburne resident Jim Buchanan, 44, was described by friend Krista Peterson on social media as “a gentle man gone too soon and missed by many.” His friends and family called him “the Gentle Giant” or “Big Jim.” The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax said Buchanan, on board the Secret Sea, was laying lobster traps about 25 nautical miles south east of Cape Sable when he went overboard around 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The JRCC asked the Canadian Coast Guard to assist, and they brought him into West Head on Cape Sable. Harbourmaster Dick Crowell said an ambulance was there to provide medical assistance, but Buchanan had already died. The boat is owned by Harding Lobster Ltd. of Shelburne. Captain Audie Harding said he and his crew are still struggling to understand what happened to their friend. Read the story here 09:07
