Editor’s picks: My favorite staff photos of 2015

The photos from this year’s fish kills in the Peconic were among the most eerie I’ve seen in my time with this newspaper. It’s hard not to feel a bit threatened by an image depicting so much death. What I found striking about this particular photograph, taken by longtime staff photographer Barbaraellen Koch, is how the fish were juxtaposed with a bunch of recreational boats west of Route 105 at the Riverhead Yacht Club. It adds a layer as to just how much the water quality issues threaten the North Fork way of life.