Sydney Fish Market Christmas seafood marathon kicks off for 2015
If you thought you were busy in the lead-up to Christmas, spare a thought for those working at the Sydney Fish Market.
At 5am on Wednesday, the iconic seafood hub began a 36-hour trading marathon – its busiest time of the year – to supply fresh produce for Sydneysiders’ festive tables.
Local favourites include blue swimmer crab, snapper, Atlantic snapper and farmed barramundi, as well as prawns and oysters.
Oyster shucker Suraj, of Peter’s, said he had already shucked an astonishing 4000 dozen oysters in the past week.
“I’m doing the 36-hours straight run so I’ll probably end up doing about 8000 to 9000,” Suraj told The Sydney Morning Herald.
An estimated 660 tonnes of seafood will be sold in the 36 hours, ranging from wholesale purchases to small family meals.
More than 1000 staff are rostered on in shifts of 150 at a time to handle the expected 100,000 buyers.
At the height of the buying frenzy, some 427 oysters and 60kg of prawns are selling every minute.
“I’ll be buying a few extra prawns today because you can never have too many prawns,” said Tony Wearne, buying manager of Peter’s, on the fish market auction floor.
The fish market will close at 5pm on Christmas Eve.
