WoolardofWanchese Fish Com- 

 pany get ready for the long trip to the 

 Fulton Fish Market. From left, Capt. BUI 

 Mieschberger consults with Ken Gall of 

 New York Sea Grant at the Fulton Fish 

 Market. The famed market is in lower 

 Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge. 



8 SPRING 2004 



dodge workers unpacking seafood. 



At the Fulton market, buyers can 

 choose seafood from more than 60 whole- 

 sale companies crowded into a four-square 

 block. "I heard a billion dollars worth of fish 

 are sold a year at this market," says Vinny 

 Tatick, owner of Joseph H. Carter Co. Inc. 



Carter and the other wholesale 

 businesses are housed in two open-front 

 buildings owned by the City of New York 

 and individual brick buildings along South 

 Street. Outside, fish brokers work in the 

 market where fish from around the world 

 are displayed on ice — from pink porgy 

 and grouper to octopus and skate. 



At Caleb Haley, a whole tuna that 

 weighs more than 600 pounds shim- 

 mers under the lights. "This tuna will 

 go to a sushi purveyor," says Duke. 



After showing off the tuna, Duke 

 holds up a swordfish for a customer. 

 To see how much it weighs, he uses 

 his hook to pick up the fish by the 

 mouth and places it on a scale. 

 "Prices change every day and depend 

 on the available supply of each 



species and the relationship 

 between the dealer and the 

 buyer and the buyer's credit," 

 says Ken Call, New York Sea 

 Grant seafood specialist 



Each market has a specialty. 

 At Blue Ribbon Fish Co., they sell 

 only saltwater fish. "Twenty percent 

 of our fish is imported," says Dave 

 Samuels. "Salmon is a big importer at 

 this market." 



In 2005, the market — which has 

 been in the same location for more than 1 60 

 years — will move to the Hunts Point Food 

 Distribution Center in the Bronx. 



The New York City Economic Develop- 

 ment Corporation is constructing a state-of-the- 

 art, 285,000-square-foot facility with controlled 

 access. The new facility will be more efficient 

 and cut unloading time by 50 percent, accord- 

 ing to city officials. 



GLOBAL MARKET FOR 

 NORTH CAROLINA SEAFOOD 



Besides the Fulton market, North Carolina 

 seafood goes to markets and restaurants all over 

 the United States and overseas. 



"We have such a large variety of seafood 

 that it goes all over the world," says William Small, 

 seafood marketing specialist for the N.C. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture & Consumer Services. 



"Some of the croaker go to Africa and 

 Korea," adds Small. "Hybrid striped bass is sold 

 in Toronto. Farm-raised catfish are shipped to 

 Europe, Japan and even Africa." 



The most lucrative North Carolina seafood is 

 blue crab. In 2002, the total blue crab catch was 

 valued at more than $33 million, according to the 

 N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF). North 

 Carolina has consistently been a leading producer 

 of blue crabs. In 1998 and 1999, North Carolina 

 was the number one producer of blue crabs in 

 the United States, harvesting more than 55 million 

 pounds each of those years, according to Small. 



Despite the high value of blue crab, the 

 industry has been struggling since the 1 990s. 

 In less than five years, more than half of the 

 state's processors have been forced to shut down, 

 according to DMF. 



The downturn in the blue crab industry 

 can be attributed to a number of factors. Catches 

 of crabs have dwindled in recent years. At the 

 same time, an influx of less expensive, imported 

 crabmeat has been nudging out the domestic 

 market share. 



In addition, lingering effects from a series of 

 hurricanes altered estuarine habitats, and the crab 

 supply further declined. 



"We had an accelerated shift from domestic 

 to imported products," says North Carolina Sea 

 Grant researcher Dave Green, who heads North 

 Carolina State University's Center for Marine Sci- 

 ences and Technology in Morehead City. "We no 

 longer can be commodity-based because we can't 

 compete at the commodity level." 



Green and Barry Nash, North Carolina Sea 

 Grant seafood technology and marketing special- 

 ist, have been working with North Carolina sea- 

 food processors to develop value-added products, 



