smelling like the ocean is fine, smelling like, uh, crabs or worse is not.
if it never saw ambient temps then think for a minute.
how long is that "fresh" fish in a grocery been sitting at fridge temps between catch and sell? (edit: I see a couple of others mentioned
this already....oops)
DON'T THROW IT AWAY.
if it smells "real real fishy" then it's probably already turned, if you just "smell" it compared to the fresh, non smell, it's ok.
I'm sure many many others have posted this before (and probably wouldn't have helped in this case but...) -> vacuum seal your fish.
I really don't care about the extra cost, it's worth it to me in the amount of fish I haven't let get freezer burnt in a zip lock in my freezer. Found 2 packs of tog from last fall that taste about as fresh as the day I packed them. They were buried and in working through the freezer this spring voila!
ah well, as to the striper, give a small piece a quick saute'... see if it cooks up and flakes nicely, and taste it... you won't die.
well probably won't die
