Ghanaian fishermen catch local seafood like red snapper and cassava fish off the country’s shores on these painted wooden boats. Supply from these is seasonal and subject to weather conditions. The market for fish is becoming more dependent on trawling boats and industrial fishing ships docked off the Harbour, which travel as far as Guinea and Sierra Leone for their catches.Market women have set up shop just outside the cooler, formal Market Hall. They sell the small, local fresh fish that comes in off the wooden boats. The population of Tema is mostly Ga; many of the women are wearing traditional red headscarves in honor of a fellow market woman passing away.Market women wake up at dawn to buy their stores from the fishermen, and usually sell their fish out of large tubs until the afternoon, or whenever their supply for the day is gone.Inside the Market Hall, women sit on crates and sell their fish off of cardboard mats. Most of the fish in the Hall is frozen, imported fish, bought by the kilo from the many cold stores surrounding the market, and then scaled and sold by the piece to customers.Colored lines in the cement of the Market Hall floor indicate the space allotted to one woman.Market women sell for long periods of time, and often have few customers, so multi-tasking is common. This fishmonger is having her hair braided as she oversees her sales. Many others breast feed or chat with friends and family.Akos sells her typically fresh fish from coolers in what is called the European Market, but she thaws and sells frozen catches from the cold stores when supply is low. The European Market is a quieter, cleaner inlet of the market frequented by expatriates and European immigrants who prefer their fish fresh, and cleaned in front of them.This woman sells street food by the Harbour. The dish she assembles is rice and noodles piled onto a banana leaf, and then spooned with a spicy, shrimp-based red sauce that often has boiled eggs and bits of meat cooked in it.
