Field Notes
A morning at Tema Fishing Harbour
A short field note from a morning at Tema Fishing Harbour: how the catch is landed, sorted and brought into the cold chain, and why being there matters.
The harbour is awake before most of the city. By the time we arrive at Tema, the first boats are already in, and the quayside has that particular early-morning energy: water, salt, the scrape of crates, voices calling across the deck.
This is where our seafood story actually starts, so we spend mornings here.
Landing
The catch comes off the boats in a steady rhythm. There’s no glamour to it. It’s careful, physical work. What matters at this stage is speed and handling: fish that’s moved promptly and kept cold holds its quality; fish that sits warm on a hot quay does not. The good crews know this in their hands, and you can see it in how quickly the catch is iced.
Sorting
Then the sorting begins. Species are separated, sizes grouped, condition checked. Standing over the boards you start to recognise the day’s character: which species ran well, how the sizes are looking, what’s worth flagging for a particular buyer’s spec. This is also where we make the calls that decide what goes forward: the grade you eventually receive is chosen here, by eye, fish by fish.
Into the cold chain
From the sorting boards, the fish we select moves straight toward cold: iced, chilled or routed to freezing depending on where it’s headed. The aim is simple and unforgiving: keep the temperature steady from the moment it’s landed all the way through to the container. Every step we cut out between the quay and the cold store is quality we get to keep.
Why we’re here
You can buy fish without ever seeing a harbour. We’d rather not. Being on the quay at landing is how we know the grade, vouch for the handling, and tell a buyer honestly what a given day’s catch is like. It’s the front end of the same farm-to-port process you see across the rest of our work: origin you can stand behind, because we stood there.
By mid-morning the first reefer is loading and the harbour shifts into its next phase. We head off with a clear picture of the day, and that picture is what we bring to the table when you ask us what’s available.
Want seafood from a supplier who’s on the quay at landing? Tell us what you need.
