Fish Bins 58 through 71, and a Story, Part 2
February 21, 2019
The tour Karen Bell gave of the A.P. Bell fish house taught me things about commercial fishing that I’d never even thought to wonder about. Like: The kind of gear on a fishing boat is specific to the species of fish fished. Like: The Bell boats may fish for as long as 14 days before returning to Cortez. Like: The U.S. government knows where all the boats are all the time. Karen treated us to factoids on the history of the company. Like: In the 1920s several families moved to Cortez from a fishing village in Carteret County, North Carolina. The Bells are only one of those families still living in Cortez. Like: A.P. Bell ships fish or roe to Taiwan, Egypt, Italy, France, and Romania as well as Texas, California, New York, Georgia, and restaurants in and around Sarasota.
I’m sad to say that most of the photographs I took inside the fish house did not turn out, but happy to show that two of my photographs of an animated Karen did, as did some of the photos of fish in the cooler. I gladly eat fish, so I’m being something like hypocritical to admit that these beautiful dead animals made me feel sad. Karen’s tour left me with so many questions that I asked if I could come back another day to ask them. She agreed, so this may not be the last of the story about the fish bins.
Two photographs in this post show the bins being used as the fish are offloaded from small boats on trailers. These are boats that ferry the catch from the fishing boats, not those that go to sea. While waiting for the tour to start, I managed to put in some time photographing the bins up close.
Romancing Reality 
Beautiful selection of images, Linda. And the fish-bin story is interesting. I’m glad your new friend, Karen, has granted permission for you to shoot so much as well as explain the process. Nice work!
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February 21, 2019 at 10:42 PM
Thanks, Ken. I just wish the fish-house photos would have turned out. Sometimes it was that the contrast in lighting was too much for me to handle before we walked over to another spot in the building. Sometimes it was that if I stayed in a location long enough to create a composition, I would miss out on what Karen was saying to the rest of the group. I think it boils down to me being a slow photographer. Good thing fish bins—and other things I photograph—don’t move.
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February 22, 2019 at 10:10 AM
Fine series, Linda!
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February 22, 2019 at 4:17 AM
Thank you, Harrie! It will continue.
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February 22, 2019 at 10:11 AM
Good pictures, my friend, and I know just what you mean about eating fish (wonderful food!) while at the same time finding them beautiful. A 🙂
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February 23, 2019 at 9:08 AM
Thank you, Adrian. And I’m glad you can sympathize about the fish. I’m trying to go more and more vegetarian, but it’s hard to get enough protein. We can now get high-protein tofu here, though, and that helps—as well as high-protein veggie burgers.
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February 23, 2019 at 10:09 AM
Seeing photos of the fish bins in use, followed by the 13 (!) close-ups of their surfaces, just makes me admire what you do more than ever. I truly think it’s a very big leap from photo-documenting-bin-in-use to the “real” fish bin photos. And I don’t think many people at all could or would make that leap.
I like your straightforward, honest telling of the story here. No gimmicks or embellishments necessary. It’s nice to learn the extra facts too, but for me, the best part is seeing your mind at work, the way you put those facts together.
Lastly, it’s great that some of the photos of Karen did come out – cool! And I like the look of the fish in boxes, those colors…I was surprised they would be put that carefully into such small boxes. Up here the boats go out and catch masses of fish that are processed on board sometimes, or kept in huge holds where I think they get more banged up. There are so many different kinds of fishing though…as you learned. 🙂
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February 25, 2019 at 5:26 PM
Well, gosh, Lynn. What can I say but thanks. I’m sorry to say that I only today (April 6!) saw this generous comment.
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April 6, 2019 at 5:10 PM