I went to FISH in Burnaby for the first time today to get prawns. You can order online and pick up the next day so we paid the extra money to save the time/gas to Steveston and also be assured of getting 10lbs for the freezer. Steveston sells max 5lbs per person this year.
They have live tanks at the front of the store but all they contained was a couple dozen dead prawns. I don't know why but it wasn't a good look. The live prawns were in styrofoam coolers in the back and seemed pretty listless. The guy sorted through the coolers and grabbed the ones that were still kicking but it took him almost ten minutes to sort through them to find good ones. No disrespect to the guy working, he was doing the best he could but the prawns weren't in great shape today.
Got home ten minutes later. Half the prawns were lively, about a quarter were listless, and another quarter showed no signs of life. FISH has great reviews both here and online. I had high hopes but their showing today was mediocre. I'll just go to the docks next year.
As an aside, the prawns are huge this year! Both from T&T and from FISH. The 10lbs today was 107 prawns. Most years it's 130-140. There were a bunch of giants in there!