Andrew Magwood grew up on Little Bulls Island, a spit of land between Big Bulls Island and Capers Island. His family survived on what they grew on their farm and what they caught from the water. His father, Captain Clarence Magwood, taught his sons to fish for everything from bass to shark. They also picked oysters and clams. And while the Magwood name is synonymous with shrimping in the Lowcountry, the business started with oysters. They also sold turtle eggs.

Anuruck “Lucky” Suttiprasert was born and raised in Thailand. In 1975 he moved to Memphis, Tennessee to attend school, always intending to return to home once he finished his studies. Three years later, he quit school to work, both in restaurants and as a mechanic. He moved to Atlanta. In 1982 a friend in Savannah, Georgia convinced him to start shrimping because the money was good. Lucky worked his way up to captain, and today he runs his own shrimp boat, Luck Chalm. Lucky explains the name comes from a combination of his name with the name of his wife, Chalam.

David Thomas has been fishing commercially for the past twenty-five years. He was born and raised in Conway, South Carolina, where his father ran a grocery store. He spent his summers in Ponce Inlet, Florida, where his uncle fished commercially and ran Timmons Fish Camp. David decided the only practical job for him was to fish, but today he say government regulations make his work difficult. He fishes with a standup rod known as a bandit reel, which drops a bungee cord directly into a current using circle hooks, which catch the outside of the fish’s lip.

In 1973 Captain Horace Crosby left his job in law enforcement and bought Crosby’s Fish & Shrimp on James Island in Charleston.  The business started as a live bait operation.  His twin daughters, Ellie and Joanie, grew up in the store.  While their father rarely let people go out on the boat with him, he often extended the opportunity to Joanie.  A fire destroyed Crosby’s in 1987, and a year later the sisters – not a pair for sitting behind a desk – rebuilt the business with the help of their father and brother, Timothy.  The next year Hurricane Hugo took it all

Fred Dockery was born in Montpelier, France, where his mother worked in a hospital run by nuns. His father traveled as a professor, moving the family from the Midwest to France to Maine to North Carolina. After graduating from Bates College with a degree in philosophy, Fred moved into an airplane hangar and worked as a landscaper before taking a job on a commercial fishing boat called "The Restless." Eventually, Fred and his family moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he took a job on a clam farm.

Jamie White grew up on Sol Legare (pronounced Sol Le-gree) Road in James Island. Sol Legare holds a long history of African American fishing traditions. Jamie grew up with marshes and rivers as his backyard. Going out to pick clams and oysters was a daily part of his life. He learned from his uncles, George and Richard Brown. Jamie moved to Atlanta and sold cars then retail clothing but returned home after the 2008 recession.

In 1973 Captain Horace Crosby left his job in law enforcement and bought Crosby’s Fish & Shrimp on James Island in Charleston.  The business started as a live bait operation.  His twin daughters, Ellie and Joanie, grew up in the store.  While their father rarely let people go out on the boat with him, he often extended the opportunity to Joanie.  A fire destroyed Crosby’s in 1987, and a year later the sisters – not a pair for sitting behind a desk – rebuilt the business with the help of their father and brother, Timothy.  The next year Hurricane Hugo took it all

Growing up on Silver Hill plantation in McClellanville, South Carolina, Julie McClellan spent her days out on a small wooden batteau accompanying her stepfather, Ellis Dawsey, as he scratched clams on his leases at White Banks and Oyster House and sold the catch to Carolina Seafood. After high school she married and went straight to work in restaurants, building houses, and later operated a deer processing plant with her husband before they divorced. For the past twenty-five years, Julie’s made her full-time living off the water.

With her father in the Air Force, Kimberly Carroll grew up living in all parts of the country: Mississippi, Florida, Alaska, and finally Charleston. In 1992 she was working as a radiologist at Roper Hospital when she met Raul Morales, a crabber and native of Cuba, while hanging out on a shrimp boat in Mount Pleasant. They fell in love, and Kimberly started selling fresh catch for Raul’s seafood business, Raul’s Seafood, which was located at Shem Creek on the Geechee Dock. Kimberly sold to 150 restaurants across the Lowcountry.

Mark Marhefka is a commercial fisherman originally from Jacksonville, Florida. He owns Abundant Seafood with his wife, Kerry, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. He delivers his fresh catch to more than twenty restaurants in Charleston, and runs a CSF (community-supported fishery) from Shem Creek where he docks his boat, the Amy Marie.