This drawing shows a small bay in Alaska where salmon tenders are unloading seiners at the end of an opening. The boats arriving will wait to unload their fish using fish pumps, and when their boats are empty (sometimes vary late at night or early in the morning), they will drop their anchors and the crews will get some much-needed sleep, or start running to some other place, taking watches as the others rest.
Every summer these places are transformed for a few hours each week. The quiet hideaways, where only the tides, waves, whales, and fish disturb the otherwise still waters become raucous marketplaces, where the shouts of tendermen, squeals of hydraulics, the grumble of engines, and the thrill of commerce arrive with the hardworking. When the fish are sold and hauled away to canneries, the bays resume their quiet lives as the boats disperse to await permission to fish another day or two.
In this drawing I have shown the seiners and tenders at anchor, buying and selling, pumping fish through their huge hoses. near the larger blue tender, the foam from the pumping water can be seen alongside.
Artist: Tom Crestodina
There will be 500 signed, numbered prints in this limited edition. It may also be used as an illustration for Tom's upcoming children's book.