The market first opened on that site in 1807 on land donated to New York City, and at first, was a general market for both fish and goods other than fish.
Originally a wing of the Fulton Market, established in 1822 to sell a variety of foodstuffs and produce. During much of its 183-year tenure at the original site, the Fulton Fish Market was the most important wholesale East Coast fish market in the United States. Opened in 1822, it was the destination of fishing boats from across the Atlantic Ocean. By the 1950s, most of the Market's fish were trucked in rather than offloaded from the docks. The wholesalers at the Market then sold it to restaurateurs and retailers who purchased fresh fish of every imaginable variety.Prices at the Fulton Fish Market were tracked and reported by the United States government.[not verified in body] In its original location, it was one of the last, and most significant, of the great wholesale food markets of New York. It survived major fires in 1835, 1845, 1918, and 1995.
The Fish Market relocated to a new facility in Hunts Point in the Bronx, from its historic location near the Brooklyn Bridge along the East River waterfront at and above Fulton Street in the Financial District, Lower Manhattan.In its new location in the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, it handles millions of pounds of seafood daily, with annual sales exceeding $1 billion, and is second in size only to Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market.