Why our fish is different - & better

Not all wild-caught fish is the same for many reasons. It's hard for the untrained consumer to see the difference, but generally they can taste it.
     We only buy restaurant-quality fish, which is usually from day boats, not the giant trawlers that supply grocery chains. The big boats stay out for days, even weeks, and the fish is processed on the boat. Before it's processed, it's in giant holds, where the fish on the bottom is pretty much crushed. Grocery stores order tens of thousands of pounds of fish, they mostly don't even consider where it comes from or how it's caught, they just want lots of it at a cheap price.
     Exactly how fresh can fish be that's been on a boat for 2 weeks?
     Much of the fish that's in grocery fresh cases is fish that was previously frozen. (Read the tiny print.) There's nothing wrong with fish that's been frozen right after being caught, but it should be left frozen. Once it's been frozen, thawing starts a rapid deterioration of the fish, and the fish should be cooked immediately, not left sitting in a fish case for days.
     We generally get whole fish which we process ourselves. We want to look at the eyes, to see if they're clear, and can smell whether the fish is truly fresh. Our fish doesn't sit in a distribution center somewhere, it comes from our suppliers on both coasts, gets picked up at the airport and put in our cases the same day.
     To offer the quality that we offer, we have to pay our suppliers more. Yes, you can get cheaper fish at the supermarket. But don't you care what it tastes like?? Saving a few bucks on fish nobody wants to eat is not good economics.