Page 84 - Bulletin 7 2003

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FISH MARKET
The fishing industry continues to make rapid strides, and has reached such
proportions that the present accommodation of the Fish Market is so congested as
seriously to hamper trade. The industry now employs about 2 000 persons, including
fishermen, stall-holders and their assistants, cleaners, hawkers, etc. The retail trade,
for which the market was designed, now assumes insignificant proportions compared
with the wholesale trade, and the huge curing and drying business which has grown
up on the Market premises. During the recent snoek season the lack of
accommodation for dealing with the enormous catches of fish was most marked, and
the open spaces around the Market had to be used for curing, drying, and storing the
fish. The facilities for landing such large quantities of fish are also inadequate, and
are such as to render the preservation of a sanitary state of things most difficult.

THE FISH HARVEST
In Table Bay the snoek arrived about the beginning of March, and from then until the
end of June large hauls were landed almost daily. The fish disappeared from Table
Bay just as they were losing condition. It is estimated that at least 600 000 snoek
passed through this Market alone, and they were worth about 8d each, or a total value
of approximately £20 000. A large quantity of the dried snoek were dispatched to
Mauritius, and realised from £17 - £20 per ton, and the remainder found markets
throughout the Union.

THE CRAWFISH SEASON
The crawfish season commences in March and extends until November. Supplies
have been fairly good, although the fish were rather small in size. Something like
1 600 000 have been landed here as against 600 000 during the same period of the
previous year. This difference can be easily accounted for owing to the owner of a
local factory having recently commenced to land his crawfish upon this jetty. The
average price was 4s per hundred, or a total value of £3200. About four-fifths of
these have been canned, and find markets throughout the Union, Great Britain and
Europe.

The Corporation of the City of Cape Town Mayor’s Minute, August 1913.

Some of the conditions referred to above are shown in Figs. 3.1 - 3.3.

The marketing of fish was a sore point as a Fish Market had been established on

Rogge Bay and fish were supposed to be sold only by agents operating there. So
fishermen tied themselves to a particular agent for a set price for their wares rather

than auctioning their fish publicly. This led to all sorts of regulations which were not