Tag Archives: Karen Bell
Gulf commercial fishermen file lawsuit over new red grouper quotas
The federal government will soon impose new limits on the amount of red grouper that commercial fishers can catch in the Gulf of Mexico and local business owners say that will impact the industry and their customers. “It will definitely cost you more today. And will probably cost you more tomorrow because there’ll be less allocation,” said Frank Chivas. Karen Bell, owner of A.P. Bell Fishing Company in Cortez agrees that the price for grouper is likely to rise. Bell has signed on to a federal lawsuit challenging the reallocation of the red grouper harvest. > click to read < 09:49
Coronavirus Florida: Cortez fish company staying afloat
Fishing boats are still leaving the docks in Cortez, but coronavirus has changed the specifics of where the hauls wind up. Karen Bell, president of A.P. Bell Fish Co., said “we’re holding our own” when asked about the impact the virus has had on the fish house she owns in the historic village of Cortez that sends seafood all over the world. Business is far from brisk, but demand is still there, even if the target has been altered. “It (the virus) shifted everything around,” Bell said. “People are still eating but they’ve changed how and where they eat.” Of the fish being unloaded now, 60% are coming from inshore, 40% offshore, Bell said. Before the virus upended the economy, it was the other way around. >click to read< 10:20
Cortez fishing giant and business leader named Manatee County’s Outstanding Agriculturist
Karen Bell was supposed to present a talk on the $11 million Manatee County seafood industry. Or, so she thought.,,, “I am just shocked — thank you so much — because, and I thought, Scott, I thought we were here for you,” Bell told the crowd, and Scott Moore, a charter boat captain and conservationist who is being inducted into the Manatee County Agriculture Hall of Fame. “I’m just shocked that you all got one over on me.” Bell serves on local and national boards representing the seafood industry and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Reef Fish, >click to read< 16:59
Fishing for business: Cortez one of Florida’s few remaining fishing villages
Karen Bell can’t think of anything she’d rather be doing than running a commercial fishing operation along Florida’s Gulf Coast. A.P. Bell, on the northern edge of Sarasota Bay, is one of the few remaining working waterfronts left in Florida. The company owns eight boats that dock at the pier. Another five independent fishers bring their catches to the fish house.The boats that catch bait for the offshore long-line fishermen and the stone crabbers go out for only a day at a time, but the fishermen who bring in the pop- ular grouper are often out in deep water for 10 or 12 days. Read the rest here 14:44
