Anyone passing by from afar can already notice all the activity at the Itajai fish market: trucks are unloading crates of fish, vendors are moving around to attract customers, and shoppers are trying to keep the tradition of putting fish on the table.

Pedrinho has been a salesman for 35 years and follows the tradition of his father and grandfather. Photo: Cassia Salles/North Dakota.

It is not surprising that the natives of Itajai mistake a fishmonger for an informal gentleman. After all, 162 years of history revolve around a product extracted from the sea and the river. Fish not only strengthen the city’s economy: the sale of fish is also a tradition and has been around for generations in the family of Pedro Paulo Garcia, or rather Pedrinho.

Paulinho has owned Lodge 6 on the Mercado do Peixe do Centro for about 35 years, but the same lodge once belonged to his father and grandfather, Fernandes Garcia. Seu Fernandez was one of the first fishmongers in the city, and he was already selling the product even before the market appeared on Place Felix Busso Assebourg. In the 1920s, when Grandpa Pedrinho started his business, the commercial center was where the headquarters of the Brazilian Navy is today, on the banks of the Itajai Asu River.

Fishing traditions have driven the Itajai economy for 162 years. Photo: Cassia Salles/North Dakota.

Everything he knows, he learned from his family, who have lived off the fish trade ever since. He knows all the fish, the ideal cooking methods of each kind, knows how to clean the fish and sell it like few others. “I like to communicate, teach and learn,” he says.

From memory takes an excursion that came with the school class to visit the Market. He was about 10 years old and could barely see because of the high counters. But he saw how his grandfather works, as always. He also saw trading in everything imaginable in the Market.

According to the tourist portal Itajaí, the Public Market, which is located next to the Fish Market and today is a restaurant, was opened in 1917. Everything was sold there, from food to pigs. Sounds, voices and people are still in Pedrinho’s memory.

Box 6 has been owned by Garcias since the 1920s. Photo: Kassia Salles/ND

According to Itajai Fisheries Minister Rodrigo Silveira, the fish production chain is the second largest source of income in the city, behind only the port of Itajaia. It goes beyond the fisherman: it includes industry, transport and, of course, sales.

“I love working with him. Fish is life. I raised my children and grandchildren to love fish as much as I do. Whether they will continue to trade, I don’t know. But I will,” concludes Pedrinho.