NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- The fresh fish you order and pay top dollar for may be fake. Eyewitness News caught restaurants selling frozen fish and making up fancy-sounding names in order to fool you.

Muriel Lamee catches just about everything Florida waters have to offer. Her family is a dying breed, commercial fishermen. So when she notices fake fish names showing up on local menus, she knew something was fishy.

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Something Fishy About The Fish You're Served

State officials tell Channel 9 that, more and more often, seafood outlets are selling fish that doesn't exist. Channel 9 found several restaurants selling White Snapper or Silver Snapper, a fish Lamee couldn't catch if she wanted to, because it doesn't exist.

At the Sea Harvest Restaurant in New Smyrna Beach, Channel 9 reporter Steve Barrett ordered Silver Snapper and wondered what it really was. In the dumpster out back, an answer was found: cod boxes from New Zealand. Oddly, cod isn't even on Sea Harvest's menu.

Barrett went inside ask why. The first manager insisted they sold Silver Snapper, but soon a second manager came clean.

"The fish does not exist. We use it as a ... if you come in and say 'cod sandwich,' Silver Snapper sounds better. It's a poetic licensing type thing," said Sea Harvest manager Robert Zebrowski.

But, Silver Snapper is not the only funny fish in the sea. Fish and Wildlife officials say it's extremely difficult to know exactly what's being place on your plate.

Everyone's heard of imitation crab. Of course, it's labeled as such. But could you tell the difference between real grouper or a knock-off fish?

But even when it is the real fish, it's often not from our sea. Sea Harvest admitted its grouper is not Florida grouper. In fact, it's not from the sea at all. Instead, it's from a pond in China.

The reality is, unless you caught it, you can't be positive what you're getting. In some cases, grouper is actually exchanged for certain catfish. Channel 9 found there are literally dozens of fish that can be passed for one another.

The FDA is currently enacting new rules for fish labeling, but they will only be effective if fish companies in other countries are on the up and up.

Channel 9 would also like to point out that Sea Harvest was quite honest about the practice, but experts say many, if not most, play the fish name game.

Seventy-percent of all fish sold in the U.S. is imported. Of the remaining 30 percent, more than half is farm raised. So your chances of eating something fresh from the Atlantic are less than one in ten.