For the Sydney railway station, see Fish Market MLR station.

A fish stall in HAL market, Bangalore

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.^[1]

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[link]

The Great Fish Market, painted by Jan Brueghel the Elder

There is a long history of fish markets from the time of ancient Greece.^[2] 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.

Since refrigeration and rapid transport became available in the 19th and 20th century, fish markets can technically be established at any place. However, because modern trade logistics in general has shifted away from marketplaces and towards retail outlets, such as supermarkets, most seafood worldwide is now sold to consumers through these venues, like most other foodstuffs.

Consequently, most major fish markets now mainly deal with wholesale trade, and the existing major fish retail markets continue to operate as much for traditional reasons as for commercial ones. Both types of fish markets are often tourist attractions as well.

• 

  Dutch fish market (Joachim Beuckelaer ca. 1533–1575)

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  Dutch fish market (Jan Brueghel the Elder 1568–1625)

• 

  Family of the painter at the fish market (Jan Brueghel the Elder 1568–1625)

• 

  German fish market, c. 1615

• 

  Dutch fish market, 1683 (Cornelis Dusart)

• 

  Billingsgate fish market, c. 1810

• 

  French fish market, 1833 (François-Antoine Bossuet)

• 

  Fish market in Rome (Albert Bierstadt 1830–1902)

• 

  Frankfurt fish market, 1860 (Peter Becker 1828–1904)

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  Wives of the fishermen selling fish in Copenhagen, 1932

Great fish markets[link]

The following is an incomplete list of great fish markets (see also a list of fish market articles.).

Operative markets[link]

• Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo, Japan; the world's largest fish market, marketing about 660,0000 tonnes a year.^[1]
• Mercamadrid, Madrid, Spain; the world's second largest fish market, marketing about 220,0000 tonnes a year.^[1]
• Sydney Fish Market, Sydney, Australia the world's third largest fish market for volume sold and second largest in terms of variety
• Billingsgate Fish Market, London, United Kingdom
• Busan Cooperative Fish Market, Busan, South Korea
• Feskekôrka, Gothenburg, Sweden.
• Fulton Fish Market, New York, USA
• Maine Avenue Fish Market, Washington, D.C., USA

Historical markets[link]

• Scania Market, a historical annual market at the Falsterbo Peninsula

• 

  Wholesale fish market
  Frozen tuna in the Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo.

• 

  Fish market in Awasa, Ethiopia

• 

  Vendor at fish market in Margao, India

• 

  Retail fish market
  Chinatown, Sydney.

• 

  Cutting out the middle man. Sunday morning at Wellington wharf, New Zealand

See also[link]

• Fish monger
• Fish wife

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bellamy JC (1843) The housekeeper's guide to the fish-market for each month of the year Issue 33171 of Goldsmiths'-Kress library of economic literature, Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans.
• Bestor TC (2004) Tsukiji: the fish market at the center of the world In PE Lilienthal, California studies, Volume 11, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-22024-9.
• Le Blanch J (2003) The Global fish market and the need for multilateral fishing disciplines In: Leonard B (ed) Overfishing: A Global Challenge, Diane Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4289-6711-3.
• Crother C (2005) Catch!: A Fishmonger's Guide to Greatness Berrett-koehler Series, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN 978-1-57675-323-1.
• Graddy K (2006) "The Fulton fish market" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(2): 207–220.
• Kirman AP and Vriend NJ (2000) "Learning to be loyal: A study of the Marseille fish market" In: Gatti DD, Gallegati G and Kirman AP, Interaction and market structure: essays on heterogeneity in economics, Volume 484. Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-66979-1.
• Maniatis GC (2000) "The Organizational Setup and Functioning of the Fish Market in Tenth-Century Constantinople" Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 54: 13-42.
• Porcu L (2005) "Fishy business: Humor in a Sardinian fish market" International Journal of Humor Research, 18(1): 69–102. doi:10.1515/humr.2005.18.1.69
• Sophie S and Håkan H (2009) "Behind the fish market facade" The IMP Journal, 3(1): 50-74.

External links[link]

• A film clip of a fish market in New York in 1903 is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Fish out of water: A guide to city fishmongers New York Magazine, 10 April 1978.

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