Fisherman’s Co-op waterfront reimagined

Coastal Elec­tric Cooperative’s com­mit­ment to com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment stretch­es far beyond deliv­er­ing pow­er. The sto­ry of the Bryan Fisherman’s Coop­er­a­tive is a per­fect exam­ple.

In the late 1970s, 25 local shrimp fish­er­men in Bryan Coun­ty came togeth­er with a shared vision: Cre­ate a place where they could unload and process their catch close to home. At the time, fish­er­men were forced to trav­el to Savan­nah or Darien, adding sig­nif­i­cant time and expense to their oper­a­tions. Each fish­er­man invest­ed $20,000 to form the Bryan Fisherman’s Coop­er­a­tive, pur­chas­ing land and build­ing what would become one of the Geor­gia coast’s most impor­tant seafood pro­cess­ing hubs.

But the project could not have suc­ceed­ed with­out elec­tric­i­ty.

Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive played a vital role by extend­ing under­ground pow­er lines near­ly 4 miles to the remote site—a major under­tak­ing in 1979. That infra­struc­ture made it pos­si­ble to pow­er refrig­er­a­tion, ice-mak­ing equip­ment, ship­ping facil­i­ties and a 900-foot dock that helped trans­form the co-op into a thriv­ing eco­nom­ic engine for Bryan Coun­ty. At its peak, an esti­mat­ed 20% of all shrimp served in Geor­gia crossed the dock at the Bryan Fisherman’s Coop­er­a­tive.

Although chang­ing mar­kets and ris­ing costs even­tu­al­ly led to the facility’s clo­sure in the late 2000s, the site’s sto­ry did not end there.

Today, the prop­er­ty has been reimag­ined as a beau­ti­ful pub­lic water­front park by the Bryan Coun­ty Com­mis­sion, pre­serv­ing its co-op begin­nings while cre­at­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties for res­i­dents and vis­i­tors to enjoy the coast. The park now fea­tures boat ramps, fish­ing access, nature trails, wildlife view­ing areas and scenic views of St. Cather­ines and Oss­abaw islands.

Once again, Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive helped bring the vision to life.

Through the Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Foun­da­tion, coop­er­a­tive mem­bers’ vol­un­tary dona­tions helped pro­vide a $30,000 match­ing grant that enabled the Bryan Coun­ty Com­mis­sion to secure addi­tion­al fund­ing from the Geor­gia Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources for the park project.

The part­ner­ship reflects one of the coop­er­a­tive prin­ci­ples Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive val­ues most: Coop­er­a­tion Among Coop­er­a­tives. From sup­port­ing local fish­er­men decades ago to help­ing cre­ate pub­lic access to the coast today, Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive con­tin­ues to invest in projects that strength­en the com­mu­ni­ty and improve qual­i­ty of life across the region.