Report of the commissioner for 1878 : part VI.

  • United States Fish Commission.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the commissioner for 1878 : part VI. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    179/1174 (page 77)
    I. THE FEESH-FISH TBADE. The exhibits of the different countries represented had greater or smaller divisions for their fishery-industry. In the matter of implements there was something, but in the line of products there was much to see. The American division was richest in the first-named respect, while their products were not present in great variety in the exhibition itself, but in the fish-markets. As the products in many respects give the Amer- ican fisheries a peculiar character and well merit the serious attention of other nations, I set myself as a special task to examine this matter. I adopt therefore as a suitable introduction for my report the fresli-fish traffic. By the distinguished favor of the Norwegian juror, Consul Joakim Anderssen, I was introduced to some of the more prominent business men in this branch, and in company with him I went through Fulton Mar- ket, New York, where an important trade in fresh fish is carried on, and in whose market-building they have their local association, assembly- room, library, &c. Later we continued our examination in Gloucester and Boston until the consul’s return home in August, after which I alone went to sea in a fishing-vessel and followed mackerel-catching for two weeks, to become acquainted with its practical working. I shall not now undertake to mention the fish-merchants’ association, its organization, with prices-current, &c., but immediately proceed to the business itself in Fulton Market, in New York City. Fresh fish are sold here from stands, not boats or ships, and are said to be used at all seasons of the year with ice, to keep them fresh as long as possible. I visited the place the first time in August, in very warm weather; the last time I was there was in February. Then the streets were covered with some feet of snow and ice. Both times the fish were partly hard frozen, partly packed in ice. No fish were sold living; the only approach to living “ fish” were the large turtles, which are brought in by steamers from the West Indian and Florida coasts. The retailers were not “ fish-wives,” but young men, merchants’ clerks. The number of kinds of fish offered for sale was great, and the prices at different times of the year varied greatly, without, however, fluctu- ating much from one day to another. Here merchants of moderately large capital carry on the traffic, part of whom have their own fishing-vessels, giving the business a character something like the Norwegian trade in salted and dried fish and herring; I mean that it is free from the mean and dirty market traffic which one as a rule associates with the sale of fresh fish. The retailers in Fulton Market have, in part, marble counters, neatly-arranged stands, a private office where the owner of the stand may note his sales. The large mer- chants exercise supervision, and the young attendants, dressed in long