One way to tell if they are fresh is to run your finger nail over the shell, the shell should be smooth. When shrimp are dipped the shells become pitted and you can feel it. I've never seen anyone dip them in bleach or even heard of that but they do dip them Sodium Sulphite.
My Grandpaw was a shrimper, they didn't have a freezer on the boat and would stay out a week at a time. If you ice shrimp down properly they will stay fresh up to a couple weeks. Don't think the shrimp that you are buying at Rouses are fresh either, that's IQF shrimp that are defrosted, not a bad a product but not fresh either.
Best way to buy them is to find a Shrimper and do business with him/her. My buddy makes over $100,000 a year pushing nets and has never had to go looking for customers. You have to make an order with him, when he's running in he fills all his orders, what ever isn't sold gets sold to the dock. A few times I had to wait a couple weeks for him get the size I wanted to put up in the freezer, but always fresh clean shrimp.
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