Every morning at 5:30 the two markets fill up. Several dozen wholesale merchants gather around three stalls at each market and purchase fish at a public auction. The sales manager at each stall proudly presents the crates, announces the type of fish they contain and their weight, and collects a large number of bids. The highest is written on a piece of paper and set aside until the auction is over, when the winning bidder will purchase the crate’s contents.
While the fish merchants seem energetic and full of vitality, the fish are somewhat less so. The quantity, variety and size of Israeli salt water fish have been shrinking by the year. According to figures collected by the fisheries department of the Agriculture Ministry, in the past decade there has been a 40 percent decline in the local quantity of fish. Other figures, published in 2010 by the state comptroller in a comprehensive report on the fishing industry in Israel, indicate a decline of 80 percent. The two fish in the worst situation are grouper ?(lokus?) and cod, with a decline of 75 percent since the early 1990s.