Fish Market
in
Marseille, France
fisherman bring their fresh catch for sale
"Peché le nuit, vendu le matin", we were told.
Translated, roughly, to "caught during the night, sold in the morning". In fact,
"caught during the night" is really the wee-hours of the morning. A procession
of the small fishing boats can be seen going out of the harbour around Five
O'Clock in the morning, long before the sun comes up.
About eight or nine in the morning the first boats arrive back at the Quai des
Belges. The fisherman or fishermen, only one or two on these small boats, first
off-load a shallow blue tray, and set it up on a folding stand on the pier,
often aided by mother, wife or other family members waiting there. A scale and a
cutting block then come off the boat to be put in place.
With the stand in place, buckets or baskets of fish come off the boat to be
poured onto the blue tray, and a bucket of seawater is set beside to keep the
fish wet.
Waiting customers crowd up immediately to every newly-arrived fisherman, and
out-stretched hands point out their selections from the still-flopping fish.
many of the fish are alive and still flopping
in plastic bins with the name of their fishing boat
cut from the eel
an octopus trying to work his way out of the box
seahorse for sale
selling out of the baby cart
more eel
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