Our Story
Wellington Trawling and Sea Market:
In 1947, the Meo family of Island Bay set up the fish factory on this site and distributed wholesale fresh and frozen fish, shellfish, and smoked fish to local and international customers. Bluff oysters arrived in sacks and, in later years, were shucked in 25-dozen tins. The factory had a large smoking area where fish was preserved.
Tony Basile was part of a group that bought this business in 1979 and soon took over the running of the whole operation. Tony is a second-generation Italian whose father Antonio and Uncle Mariano emigrated from Sorrento, Italy, in the 1920s and worked as Island Bay fisherman.
Over the last 33 years, the Wellington Trawling and Sea market has responded to changes in public taste and habits. Its smokehouse closed because its emissions became unpopular in this built-up area and, in the 1970s as the demand for whole fish or fillets with the skin and backbones attached waned and that of fully filleted portions grew, filleting and other ways of preparing fish for sale took place in the factory.
The fish prepared and sold by Wellington Trawling and Sea market is caught by contract fishermen who sell their quota to Tony. Some have been supplying fish to this business for 10 to 20 years. This fish is still landed fresh at Wellington port.
The retail fish shop on this Cuba Street site was opened in 2000. The Wellington Trawling and Seamarket has two other stores, one in Lambton Quay and the other in Lower Hutt. Fresh fish and crayfish are exported from the factory to Australia and the West Coast of America and frozen goods are sent afield.