Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say: Whatever the sea casts out, or whatever the water recedes from, or whatever is caught in it, eat it; and whatever dies in it and then floats up, do not eat it.
A number of narrators reported it from Abu al-Zubayr from Jabir as his own saying (mawquf); Abu Ahmad al-Zubayri differed from them and narrated it from al-Thawri as a saying of the Prophet (marfu'), and he erred in that.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الصيد والذبائح / 18988
Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: "When fish floats up on the water, do not eat it; when the sea recedes from it, eat it; and whatever is at its edge, eat it."
Sulayman (al-Tabarani) said: No one narrated this hadith from Sufyan as a saying of the Prophet (marfu') except Abu Ahmad.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الصيد والذبائح / 18989
Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whatever the sea casts out or recedes from, eat it; and whatever dies in it and floats up, do not eat it."
Abu Dawud said: Sufyan al-Thawri, Ayyub and Hammad narrated this hadith from Abu al-Zubayr and stopped it at Jabir (mawquf). He said: This hadith has also been narrated with a chain to the Prophet through a weak route, from Ibn Abi Dhi'b, from Abu al-Zubayr, from Jabir, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
The Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Yahya bin Sulaym al-Ta'ifi makes many errors and has a poor memory, and others have narrated it from Isma'il bin Umayyah as mawquf. Abu Isa al-Tirmidhi narrated it from the hadith of Ibn Abi Dhi'b, through al-Husayn bin Yazid al-Kufi, from Hafs bin Ghiyath, from Ibn Abi Dhi'b, from Abu al-Zubayr, from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: "Whatever you catch while it is alive, eat it; and whatever you find dead and floating, do not eat it." Abu Isa said: I asked Muhammad, meaning al-Bukhari, about this hadith, and he said: This is not mahfuz (preserved); the opposite of this is narrated from Jabir, and I do not know of anything narrated by Ibn Abi Dhi'b from Abu al-Zubayr.
The Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Yahya bin Abi Unaysah also narrated it from Abu al-Zubayr as marfu', but Yahya bin Abi Unaysah is matruk (abandoned) and is not used as proof. Abd al-Aziz bin Ubaydullah narrated it from Wahb bin Kaysan from Jabir as marfu', but Abd al-Aziz is da'if (weak) and is not used as proof. Baqiyyah bin al-Walid narrated it from al-Awza'i from Abu al-Zubayr from Jabir as marfu', but what Baqiyyah narrates alone is not used as proof, so how much less what he is contradicted in? Moreover, the view of the body of the Companions is contrary to the view of Jabir, together with what we have narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said about the sea: "Its water is pure and its dead are lawful." And success is from Allah.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الصيد والذبائح / 18990