Abstract

This paper discusses the development of the fish market in Kezailiao, Kaohsiung, a market which is based on an assemblage of different material equipment, composed of different people and non-human actors with different characteristics, and influenced by different organizational cultures, resulting in different market patterns. I use ‘fish species’ as an entry-point to divide the history of the fish market into ‘Mullet Market’ and ‘Fresh-fish Market’ stages. Before the 1990s, in what I call the period of the ‘Mullet Market,’ wild mullet was the main economic fish species. Fishermen’s fishing methods, religion, social relations and market patterns were all connected with the biological characteristics of mullet. However, with the disappearance of wild mullet, these fishing techniques, social institutions and landscapes have also disappeared. After the 2000s, the fishery association tried to develop a tourist fish market that emphasized fresh-fishing. The fishery association purchased the trash fish under a guaranteed price system to attract fishermen to the fishing port to auction the catch, then established a refrigeration plant, and promoted the HACCP certification mechanism, and finally brought together the ‘Fresh-fish Market.’ This research attempts to point out that in the process of re-assembly of the fish market, marketability gradually replaces sociality.