So what kind of fish purchasing process and retail chain do we know in Germany, for example?

Firstly: fish from the supermarket, sometimes fresh fish in the packaging, but mostly so-called “refresh products”. Look at the packaging, the small print says “defrosted” in small print. You can be sure that this is rarely fresh fish or fish that has come directly from a fisherman.  Secondly: Take a look at the online stores for fish that is delivered directly to your home: frozen. They give the impression of freshness with nice marketing material and pictures of fresh fish, but it's frozen, otherwise they couldn't manage the logistics. Thirdly there are fish counters, specialized fish stores. These fish stores usually source their fish from wholesalers such as Deutsche See, Südfisch or Metro and are only the last link in the long chain of trade, which is: fisherman - port auction - wholesale buying country - wholesale Germany - retail and this chain of trade is so “at best”. When it comes to solea solea or solea senegalensis, we often experience the journey from wholesaler to wholesaler from Morocco via Spain to France, Holland, Germany 5 dealers until the fish can even be sold to restaurants or fishmongers, let alone to the end customer. Why Morocco? Because the northern seas, especially around the English Channel, are overfished. Assume that much of the fish in Germany that is supposed to be fresh has not been declared as defrosted and yet very often misdeclared. There is nothing to criticize about frozen products, there are even common preservation methods in Japan, for example for tuna, which guarantee a very good product. Fresh fish and from small fishermen is of a higher quality and too often it is not properly declared in Germany, we see that every day, on top these products are not properly vacuumed, which leads to strong oxidation over a long period of time. A frozen fish fillet usually has a long journey behind it. Quite a few fish products in Germany are over a year old. Often declared “fresh shrimp” or “fresh tuna” are clear label fraud - they don't even exist in Germany and we know this because we are the only ones who offer fresh shrimp in Germany.Fresh prawns can sometimes come from Italy, but the so-called red Carabineros, if they are really fresh and not defrosted, are not even available wholesale for less than 70 euros per kilo. So, of course there are exceptions, I'm talking about the mass market, so I have to standardize a bit, but we are aware of the exceptions. And I would also like to stand up for every fisherman who markets his catch himself, like the Mecklenburg fishermen for example https://www.myfish-ostsee.de/ It is simply the right way to stand up to the big trawlers, otherwise the small fisherman with his own boat will definitely die out, the big trawlers simply shave everything off, mercilessly. Every month in Africa we see more and more of the destruction caused by the trawlers from Spain, Korea, Japan and China, which then of course sell the frozen goods to Europe. So you could say that the fishing industry and its distribution in Germany is a sham, a market that has more to do with logistics and price wars than with quality products or a direct link to the person who guarantees the freshness and natural harvesting of the world's oceans without destruction, the fisherman.