If it's been soaked with a saline solution, it will be much higher. Although it is found in only about 1 percent of the catch, chalky fish continues to be a headache for buyers and sellers of fresh halibut. Caused by an acidic buildup in the flesh, believed to be a result of the fish struggling on the line, chalky halibut have a very white meat color, as opposed to the normal translucent color. The problem is, the chalky condition does not develop until several days after the fish is caught, and is hard to detect until the fish is filleted. Once it develops, chalky fish is easy to spot.
Most distributors simply tell their customers to return it for a credit.
Although the texture is noticeably drier, chalky fish is fine for applications such as fish and chips. If you want a good deal on a good fish, you might try buying chalky halibut as you can usually pick it up for about half of the price of a regular halibut fletch. While the quality of halibut has gotten better, there's still a significant amount of marginal-quality fish out there. Most of the fresh halibut that comes down from Alaska is either trucked down the Alaska-Canada highway or is shipped down from Kodiak or Dutch Harbor. As a result, it may have 10 days on it by the time it gets to a distributor.