San Diego was at one time home to a healthy fishing industry, but now it appears that residents may once again be able to buy fish right off the boat.
Tuna Harbor Dockside Market is now open for business, and its opening – on Saturday, August 2nd at 8 am – had customers queuing up for hours. San Diego County and the Port of San Diego worked with local fishermen to get the market up and running in a matter of weeks.
The market sits on a disused pier located just north of Seaport Village, a trendy shopping spot popular with visitors. It reminded shoppers of similar locations like San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf or Seattle's Pike Place Market, which pride themselves on selling fresh-caught seafood.
Workers unloaded bluefin, yellowfin, sea urchin, black cod, rock crab, razor crab, box crab, and octopus directly from the boats to the market, where the fish were placed on ice. Live sea urchins and crabs went into tanks of water.
While buying fish off the boat may seem quaint today, it was a common practice in San Diego for the first half of the 20th Century. The fleet of fishing boats would dock at the Embarcadero, where San Diegans would buy fresh seafood directly from the fishermen.
Organizers could work with flyer printers to create handouts for distribution downtown, calling attention to the new market.
