Fish market

A fish market is a marketplace used for marketing fish products. It can be dedicated to wholesale trade between fishermen and fish merchants, or to the sale of seafood to individual consumers, or to both. Retail fish markets, a type of wet market, often sell street food as well.

Fish markets range in size from small fish stalls, such as the one in the photo at the right, to the great Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, turning over about 660,000 tonnes a year.

The term fish market can refer to the process of fish marketing in general, but this article is concerned with physical marketplaces.

History and development

Fish markets were known in antiquity. They served as a public space where large numbers of people could gather and discuss current events and local politics.

Because seafood is quick to spoil, fish markets are historically most often found in seaside towns. Once ice or other simple cooling methods became available, some were also established in large inland cities that had good trade routes to the coast.

Fish market (Nouakchott)

The fish market on the coast in the western part of Nouakchott, Mauritania is a bustling centre. It is described by Lonely Planet as "incredibly lively and extremely colorful" and having "teams of men, mostly Wolof and Fula, dragging in heavy hand-knotted fishing nets and small boys hurrying back and forth with trays of fish".

References

Coordinates: 18°6′12″N 16°1′34″W / 18.10333°N 16.02611°W / 18.10333; -16.02611