Fish Market in Chioggia

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to visit the fish market in Chioggia. On our way to the fish market, we walked along a flea Market where local people sell clothes and kitchen supplies. I love seeing the local people and their lifestyle. In Chioggia,  tourism is less prominent compared to other cities in Italy.  After about 15 minutes into the walk, there was the famous fish market. I learned some facts about the fish market, the fish market hours are 4 am to 2 pm. It doesn't open all day, so local people came early to do their seafood grocery shopping. During the walk, I have noticed street was very crowded and busy. In addition, I noticed all the fishermen were men and the seafood they sold was fresh. Some of the seafood was even alive when the customers buy them. The fish market we visited is located next to a lagoon, early in the morning a bunch of boats will have fresh seafood to drop off to the fishermen. It is efficient to do business and also keep the seafood fresh. During the tour, Dr. Travis asked what percentage of the seafood is local; 78% of seafood is from local in Chioggia.  

The fish market reminded me of my childhood memories in China, when I was little I have a Chinese aunt who is a fisherman. She gets up early to go to the street market to open up her store and bring her fish out of the street. Often, she is busy talking to customers and cleaning fish that they bought. I remembered clearly, the fish she sold was alive. From Chioggia fish market experience, I never thought where the fish come from or how fishing can affect the environment. I just knew people want fresh fish. Now, I know every action there will be a reaction. In our case, it is fishing and the result of environment. 

In my article, using the economic point of view, the concern was about the fishing permits in the Venice lagoon. It matters because fish is a natural resource, which has the potential to run out. (Natural resources can suffer as they are not unlimited resources) Having an auction is a way to keep fishing permit under control and still offer an opportunity to fishing in the lagoons. When there is government rule and property rule, the exploitation of a natural resource may lead to overexploitation of the goods and cause the depletion of the resources. It was fun to able related my article to my experience in them and get to see the fish market and the auction room. I also had a chance to listen to the local people talk about the ISPRA goals and what ISPRA discovered during the process of research, and how human activity can affect the environment of the lagoon.