Choose seafood that has a faint sea odor. Freshly cut fish, peeled crustacean meats, and shucked mollusk meats should be moist, never slimy or dried around the edges. Older fish may have sunken eyes that are clouded and dry. The gills of a fresh fish are bright red, not darkened or slimy. The flesh should be moist and springy to the touch, not mushy.
Crustaceans also have several easily noticed quality-recognition points.
The tail meat from prawns, shrimp, lobster, and rock shrimp should be uniformly light colored with no signs of discoloration around the tail joints. Reject crustacean tail meat that is slimy or smelly. Likewise, fresh soft-shell crabs and cooked crab meat should have a mild, pleasant odor. The color of whole crabs should be bright. Make sure live crabs are alive.