This study was conducted to investigate the physicochemical and organoleptic characteristics and freshness of wild and cultivated Paralichthys olivaceus during storage. By the results of morphological observation, wild Paralichthys olivaceus had white abdomen, light black skin and transparent muscle, but cultivated Paralichthys olivaceus had black spotted abdomen, dark black skin and dark pink muscle. Moisture contents of wild and cultivated Paralichthys olivaceus were similar, but the lipid content was higher in cultivated Paralichthys olivaceus than that of wild Paralichthys olivaceus. Sensory scores of appearance, taste, texture and overall acceptability were higher in wild Paralichthys olivaceus than that of cultivated Paralichthys olivaceus. The reason was that lipid content was higher in cultivated Paralichthys olivaceus The freshness of cultivated Paralichthys olivaceus seemed to last shorter than that of wild one due to rapid increase of the volatile basic nitrogen content, pH and total microbial count during storage.