Befort SC seafood market Gay Fish Company to e back | Hilton Head Island Packet

Contents:

• THE GAY FAMILY
• GAY FISH CO., INC.
• 80-YEAR-OLD SHRIMPER STILL SELLG TCH TO ST. HELENA’S GAY FISH CO. ‘KIDS WON’T DO THIS’
• GAY FISH COMPANY
• GAY FISH CO
• GAY FISH CO

THE GAY FAMILY

When John Henry Gay and his wife, Hilda, me to St. His son Robert Gay, who still works on shrimp boats om the fay dock, scrib his father’s early cisn. Today Robert is -owner of the dock along wh brother, Charl, and sister, Hilda Gay Upton.

He says, “We survive here at Gay Fish Company bee of the retail shop.

I was gonna stay the service, but I got engaged to a young lady I had known most of my life, Hilda Gay. Gay for about six years.

GAY FISH CO., INC.

The Gay fay legacy ntu today spe many challeng. Foreign petn and high operatg sts have also had their impact all along the ast, and Gay Fish Company has seen the number of boats dockg there drop om a high of 21 to a handful today. Wh mcly tan forearms that belie his age, Jim Buchanan hoists a 60-pound basket of whe shrimp fat wh roe onto the dock at Gay Fish Co.

80-YEAR-OLD SHRIMPER STILL SELLG TCH TO ST. HELENA’S GAY FISH CO. ‘KIDS WON’T DO THIS’

”Buchanan is one of five ptas who own boats that dock and sell their tch at one of the survivg docks — Gay Fish Co., a St.

After all the years, Gay Fish is an inic seafood stop between Fripp Island and Befort. “It’s lerally like workg wh fay, ” Gay Fish’s Cyndy Carr says. B shrimp boat, which docks at Gay Fish Co.

GAY FISH COMPANY

Gay Sr., and his wife, Hilda Smh Gay.

Gay was workg as an electrician at the Naval Hospal Port Royal and shrimpg on the si. Gay Fish opened 1948. ”Today, the Gay’s son and Carr’s father, 77-year-old Charl Gay, ntu to work at the shrimpg bs six days a week.

GAY FISH CO

The five ptas who dock here pay no rent and a mimal ice fee exchange for sellg directly to Gay Fish, which, turn, sells shrimp a narrow retail store the ont of the property. Gay Fish also suppli fuel, which is ducted om the pay boat owners receive for shrimp. Bis seafood, you n fd important history at the retail store, like two amed receipts for $26, 000 of shrimp the Gays sold to Paramount Pictur 1993.

Close observers will fd a blooper — some of the Gay Fish shrimp shown the scene had already been head. Gay Fish Co.

Gay Fish is so close to the actn ’s not unmon for water to ver the docks or even the procsg area durg high tis.

GAY FISH CO

” Jim Buchanan holds up a shrimp at the Gay Fish Co.

Karl Puckett From the sea to salBuchanan lifts two baskets of shrimp packed on ice onto the dock and Gay Fish employee Jordan Burlew hls them away on a two-wheeler to a procsg area where they will be washed h water, weighed and -head. Jordan Burlew dumps shrimp to a washer at Gay Fish Co. Was a matter of mut before Buchanan’s tch of the day moved om the dock to a display unter Gay Fish’s retail store the ont, where ctomers were wag le.

Five ptas dock their shrimp boats at Gay Fish Co.

Karl Puckett Invtg the futureGay Fish is makg vtments pal improvements that hop will pay off the future, Carr says. As stands, everythg Gay Fish buys is phed out to retail Fish also palizg on social media — you n watch boats returng to the docks and shrimp beg procsed on Facebook — and ’s quick to seize on a marketg opportuny, like the 2022 Bigfoot sightg at Huntg Island State Park.

Gay Fish wasted no time producg T-shirts featurg a Sasquatch walkg along clutchg a big shrimp s hand. Tourists visg the Sea Islands are a boost to the bottom le at Gay Fish Co., Carr says. Visors are lookg for a lol experience, she says, and the Gays try to give to them.

But he’s not even the olst shrimp boat pta who docks at Gay Fish.

Jim Buchanan is a shrimper based at the Gay Fish Co. Now the first sectns of Gay Fish Co.