Abu Dhabi Fish Market Also Known As Al Mina Fish Market
Going beyond, in 1960, Abu Dhabi was nothing but dust and sand and few thousand fishermen and pearl divers on the shores of the Arabian Sea. In the contemporary, amid the steel and glass, the Ferraris and Escalades, it is easy to overlook the older, forgotten village, except for tucked away patches like the fish market.
At the wharf you could see crowd of dozens of graceful wooden dhows, for centuries they are built with high sterns and low, curving sheer lines. At the wharf boat sail in and go daily, piled with stacks of wire fish traps, they travel to sea to spend few days there before returning with their prized catch in the wee hours before dawn.
When the sun rises, the helm of activities shifts to the cool, tiled inside of the market proper, where the local catch is displayed joined by others throughout Gulf, and Indian fishmongers in hairnets announce their wares, to describe a lovely smorgasbord of silver fin and tail and eye. Situation outside is different, the dhow crews wash up around buckets in the hot afternoon sun and sit around piles of rice and curried cab. Here the hungry visitor has two choices: get friendly with the crews and get their invitation for a rustic lunch or procure a fish and have it cleaned and cooked at one of the nearby stall over the market’s edge.