PORTSMOUTH — Long before the Wheelers came along, hundreds of fish traps lined these shores, branching west down the coast to Block Island and east to Little Compton, Westport and beyond. Today, Corey Wheeler Forrest is helping to keep the last of them alive.

The Portsmouth resident fishes out of Sakonnet Point in Little Compton and helps run the only trap fishing operation left in southern New England. It’s a true family affair with Corey, her 75-year-old father Alan, daughter and other family and friends helping out every season. 

As they have for years, they fish out of their mothership Maria Mendonsa, a 65-foot steel-hulled vessel, and use a variety of smaller craft to help set their traps and haul in their catch — scup, bluefish, striped bass, black seabass, fluke and many other species.

It is hard work, full of uncertainty, considerable danger and ever-tightening margins. But Wheeler Forrest, who has a tattoo of Aquidneck Island denoting her traps’ locations on her left forearm, is drawn to it.

“The longer I do this, the more I realize that fishing is less about being tough and more about toughing it out,” she wrote in an essay on her family’s business.

“We are always going to have so much working against us … a new regulation, impending climate change, or rising expenses amongst falling fish prices during a pandemic. It’s always something, yet we still plan that next fishing trip, maybe because it’s all we know and all we’ve done.”

The traps may only be set spring through fall, but keeping the fishing operation going is a year-round job. In the off-season, there are myriad tasks — repairing nets, working on the boats, dealing with changing regulations and lining up help.

As she works, Wheeler Forrest documents many of the job’s wonders on her Instagram page. Earlier this month, Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Conn. opened “Fish & Forrest: Through the Lens of a Commercial Fishermom,” featuring dozens of her photographs. The exhibit runs through the summer and will be accompanied by talks, panel discussions, film screenings, and other events across southeastern New England.

Her photographs are evocative of her dedication. They capture her 4 a.m. wakeup calls, her brother in his fishing gear, and the bow of her boat on foggy summer mornings. The lead boat runs on only 10 gallons of gas a day, and because fish remain alive in the traps, any fish that will not be used are released. Rising expenses make this sustainable method of fishing increasingly difficult, yet Corey and her family remain ever hopeful for another year.

“I don’t know if it’s the ocean’s dependable indifference when everything else is uncertain, or if it’s something in the salty air,” she wrote. “Still, something about heading toward the wide-open horizon leaves many of us feeling something like hope.”

“Fish & Forrest” is Wheeler Forrest’s first photography exhibition. It runs in the seaport’s Meeting House through the summer. For more information, see www.mysticseaport.org.