Eli5 why there is a need to salt fish before consumption

Question

I thought that fish that lives in saltwater will get salt into their bodies through diffusion, making the inside of them salty, thus when cooked should already be salted enough but that is not the case. What did I miss or assumed wrong?

In: 0

Answer 1

Saltwater fish doesn’t really have more salt in their body than freshwater fish or even land animal. Most of the salt is on their skin(because they’re wet with saltwater) which will be washed away when you clean the fish.

Their bodies are much like other animals, **too much salt, they die!** They have to get salt out of their system. That’s why Saltwater fish meat isn’t that salty, if it’s then it’s probably a dead fish soaking in seawater for a while.