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Tasty and fresh - Fulton Fish Market Part I

I visited the Fulton Fish Market for the first time in June 2004 and now for the second time yesterday night. I like the atmosphere of fish markets so much, I like the smell (yes I do - as long as I can get rid of it later) and most of all I find the people who are working there so interesting. The way you can see how hard work over a lot of years left tracks in peoples faces, the way you get to hear shouts, laughs and sometimes offensice comments from one salesman to the other. It's interesting to see how trading is going on.

The Fulton Fish Market was opend on February 5th in 1822. Its final weeks broach in its 184th year of existance. The Fish Market on Fulton street, very close to the Brooklyn Bridge is to be moved to a new location at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx. The move there was first scheduled for January, was then displaced to June and will now take place in September as Ziggy Galarza, a salesman at one of the many fish companies told me.

Even tough the Fulton Fish Market is most likely the oldest place in New York that's still doing the same thing as in its beginning, its told to be Americas largest Fish Market. More than 4.5 million pounds of fish moves through it each week.

Since I thought that the Fulton Fish Market would close in June I wanted to take the chance and go there one more time. So I left my apartment in the north east of the Bronx at about 01:30 in the morning, took the bus to Pelham Bay Park, went to 125th street where Markus Hartel, a German photographer living in New York, picked me up to go there. I had a good night at the market and since I heard that it will remain there until September I'll definitely come back.

I got the morning off work today to be able to go back to my partment, take a shower and change cloths. The cloths smell awfull, I had the smell of fish in my nose for quite a few hours although it must have been imagination... But what I can say for sure (its been affirmed by a colleague) is that my camera body still has a touch of fish on it.

Posted by Martin Fuchs on May 27, 2005 11:23 PM