If you live in Kansas you are not going to get fresh Haddock, sole, flounder or Salmon

If you get salmon, it was likely caught on a small boat that spends one to three or four days out, with one day's worth of ice on board when it leaves port to start fishing. By the time it gets back to the market dock, the catch has laid in a hot hold for a couple of days, and doesn't even see a refrigerator for up to a week.

Local markets for other fish, where people claim to get "fresh fish" are generally similar.

In Kansas, the deep sea fish are caught by large "industrial complex" fishing machines with onboard ice-makers, dumped onto ice within moments of being caught, and usually frozen within a very short time after being brought on board. They may be briefly thawed for processing and packaging, but then are immediately re-frozen and remain well cared-for all the way to the market. Most is sold frozen, but even if thawed for sale as "fresh fish" it's thawed "on ice" and kept refrigerated in the display case.

It's hard to make a case for who gets the freshest fish.

Of course most of the catfish is locally farmed, or comes from farms within half the distance the local coastal fish boats go to get in and out of port. The catfish at the market is arguably fresher than what you might catch for yourself and bring home in the beer cooler from the boat.

For the "local market" fishing industry "fresh" is a euphemism for "it won't stink much if you rinse it off good;" but of course a lot of people here like "imported beers" whose distinctive "imported flavor" is really just the "stale beer" edge, so who's to argue.

John