Wholesale Seafood Market

The Eastern Shore of Virginia has a rich and colorful history of men and women that have made their livelihoods harvesting the bounty of the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. Over the years there has been a decline in the number of true working watermen as well as a decline in many of the species caught. However, some species of fin fish are experiencing fairly high population levels.

Over the past few years, watermen fishing nets for fin fish have been very successful in catching plenty of spot, croaker, trout and rock fish. However, the problem is that when the fishing is good the price that the watermen receive drop to very low levels. In order to address this problem a Wholesale Seafood Market has been proposed for the Eastern Shore. The proposed market will provide needed infrastructure that will allow the watermen to have more control over the prices that they are offered for their catch.

The proposed seafood market will have the capacity to house several wholesale buyers of seafood, enabling the watermen to sell to the buyer with the highest price. This will encourage competition among buyers. Also, the market will house a "blast freezer" and freezer space so that individual watermen may rapidly freeze their catch then store it in the event of depressed prices. This will allow the watermen to market their catch instead of quickly selling before it spoils. Another advantage of the "blast freezer" is that now watermen may create a market for much of their by-catch such as menhaden. Currently, the majority of by-catch is shoveled over board and discarded. With the newly developed blast freezer and storage the watermen will be able to market this by-catch to crabbers and sport fishermen as bait. The proposed facility will encompass approximately 39,000 square feet of warehouse, coolers, blast freezer, and freezers. It will be centrally located within the current Eastern Shore Farmers' Market complex in Melfa, Virginia.

To learn more about the Wholesale Seafood Market, please contact Mr. Jim Stern at (757)787-3842 or Email at esfm@esva.net.

Seafood Market Task Force Members
Ernie Bowden, Chairperson
Seafood Market/Blast Freezer Task Force
4219 School Street
Chincoteague, Virginia 23336
336-5792
dusky@shore.intercom.net

Task Force Members

• Mr. Sam Swift
• Mr. Jim Stern, Gen. Manager
• Mr. Paul F. Berge
• H. B. Rew, Jr., President
• Mr. Clem Pruitt
• The Honorable Robert S. Bloxom
• Mr. Lynn Gayle, President