Santa Barbara Residents Complain of Unbearable Fish Smell

Several residents who live in the areas of Quarantina and Bond Streets in Santa Barbara showed up at the Public Works building at 630 Garden Street with a bucket full of fish to protest the pungent smell they say is coming from the Santa Barbara Fish Market, and plaguing their neighborhood.

“We want some straight answers, we want some accountability here,” said Abby Fragosa. “In addition to smell there’s just a ton of noise they have large trucks.”

Fragosa and the others say that since the Santa Barbara Fish Market moved into their neighborhood, the smells have become unbearable.

“They don’t respect that we’re not in the harbor, they seem to think we’re still in the harbor,” she said.

Owner of the Fish Market, Brian Colgate said they have been in the fish market business for 15 years and just recently have moved their operations to the area.

Colgate said he is willing to do what it takes to make the living situation easier for those who live nearby, and also added that they’ve heard some complaints but not too many.

“You know, we really haven’t had direct complaints coming to us,” said Colgate.

Other neighbors like Marcus Jimerson who lives opposite Fragoso said he doesn’t smell fish as often.

“I mean I do, but not really,” he said. “Its like a one in ten chance that I’ll smell something and it won’t be that bad, it will kind of pass.”

But Fragosa said that the smell has become so bad, she is afraid it might decrease the value of her home.

“There are sometimes I walk into my backyard and I can’t even stand the smell,” she said.

According to city records, that area is not zoned for processing fish, and Colgate said they’ve done everything they can to be mindful of those who live around them.

“We wanna make sure we’re respecting our neighbors and respecting our community,” he said. “So we’re here to stay and we just wanna make it a happy living environment for everybody.”