Fulton Fish Market, New York City

Fulton Fish Market is the largest urban wholesale fish market in North America. For almost two centuries it was located in downtown Manhattan along South Street, Front Street, Water Street and Peck Slip. In 2005 a New Fulton Fish Market opened at Hunts Point in the Bronx, New York.

Between 1982 and 1994 about 1500 seafood species were sold at the original Fulton Fish Market from all over the world to feed New York's cosmopolitan population. Atlantic Canada, New England, and all the states down to Florida and around the Gulf of Mexico supplied the bulk of supplies. Canada and New England were important for codfishes (haddock, cod, and pollock) and flatfish. New York and New Jersey and the Middle Atlantic States supplied bass, flatfish, porgies, squid, tilefish, weakfish, and a large assortment of other species. Southern States supplied warm water fish such as snapper, grouper, and spotted seatrout. Migratory fish such as tuna were caught in season all along the USA seaboard. Alaska sent salmon in season. During the early 1980s new sources of fresh (unfrozen) seafood opened up. Norwegian farmed salmon arrived into Fulton followed by farmed salmon from Maine, Washington State, Canada, Scotland, and Chile. Latin America supplied groupers, snappers, croakers, porgies and many other species. New Zealand supplied green-lipped mussels, orange roughy, oreo dories, John Dorys, clams, oysters and even sea robins (gurnards) among many other species. Caribbean islands supplied snapper, parrotfish, grunts and various exotic reef fish. The Middle East expanded exports to Fulton. Oman and Saudi Arabia supplied groupers, snappers, croakers and various wrasse. Pakistan supplied seafood to Fulton as well as west African and east African countries. Tuna came from the Philippines. Swordfish arrived from Chile. Fulton even received seafood from Antarctic waters. There weren't many countries with a marine fishing industry that didn't ship seafood to Fulton during the time I was there.