Sydney Fish Market

At 6:30 a.m., I trekked out towards Darling Harbour to finally check out the Sydney Fish Markets - something that's been on my to-do list since...oh I don't know, September?

The Sydney Fish Markets are the world's second "best" fish market in the world; the title belongs to Tokyo, Japan. The comparison is mind boggling: Sydney sells 100 crates of seafood every hour, but the amount they sell in two weeks is about equivalent to what Tokyo sells in ONE DAY. That's a lot of sushi! The Japanese are quite particular too: a good tuna, fitting specific length and quality guidelines, can go for as much as $40,000 per fish, so it's usually flown in by helicopter immediately after it's caught. Holy cow.

The tour was quite cool: our guide, Greg, took us out onto the auction floor, where we were able to see wholesalers bidding on the crates of fish via a keypad and a Dutch-made auction clock. They could purchase several kilos of fish with the simple push of a button - no yelling necessary - so it was much less noisy than I was expecting. It was also much better smelling: because they're so careful when it comes to caring for the fish they're looking to sell, they made sure the fishes' bad bacteria (aka, the icky fish smell) was kept at a minimum. Makes me wonder why other fish markets don't smell as nice....

The market prides itself on its sustainability. Bycatch - unwanted fish that get caught in the nets when they're fishing - are sent off to be made into fertilizer and other products. Since my Sustainable Enterprise business class spent weeks working on slideshows and holding debates about the future of sustainable fishing in Australia, I was much more engaged in what Greg was talking about (and I've learned a lot from Paddy and Dylan, who are both studying marine biology.) What a great education I've gotten here.