Fish | Smithsonian Ocean

Colorful fish swim in blue water.

an adult and baby coelacanth specimens on display

Meet the Coelacanth

Learn about the fish that was once thought to be extinct.

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Featured Content

A Honduran small-scale fisherman on a boat setting out to fish.

Article

Clever Measures Track Fishing Pressures

A blue parrotfish hides among coral.

Article

Tough Teeth and Parrotfish Poop

On coral reefs fish are important links in the food chain that sustains higher-order predators (including humans) and keeps everything in balance.

Article

Fish Get Risky Around Oil

A tornado of sardines swirls around diver and photographer Erwin Poliakoff in the Philippines.

Article

Why the Littlest Fish Matter a Whole Lot

A school of akule (Hawaiian for bigeye scad) explode into a camera's frame.

Article

Following the Akule

Are You An Educator?

At Smithsonian Ocean, we have lesson plans, activities, and resources to help you engage your students in the wonders of our oceans.

see all lesson plans see fish lesson plans

Fish Articles

A polar bear and its cub in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

Slideshow

Celebrating Marine Moms

Master carver Douglas Chilton rides in the Raven Spirit canoe at its ceremonial launch.

Article

The Sant Ocean Hall: Salmon Shape a Way of Life

A photo of a swimming Protanguilla palau, the newly discovered genus and species of eel

Article

Scientists Call New Eel Species A Living Fossil

The ultra-black Pacific blackdragon forms a circular shape with its body.

Article

Scientists Find First Ultra-Black Color in Deep-Sea Fishes

An image of a cell phone displaying the Fish App.

Article

There’s an App for That: Using Phones to Help Make Fishing Sustainable

Home is where the hull is: Since the dawn of seafaring, humankind has had to deal with pesky creatures, such as barnacles, that “foul” ship hulls and boat propellers like this one.

Article

No Fouling Around

A photo of Oceana's ice class research vessel, the Hanse Explorer, on the Baltic Sea.

Slideshow

Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea

an adult and baby coelacanth specimens on display

Overview

Coelacanth

On Moorea, an island in French Polynesia, researchers are striving to complete a biocode—a DNA catalog of every life form big enough to pick up with tweezers.

Overview

Scientists Catalog Life on the Island of Moorea

A sea toad from the deep waters off of Curacao.

Slideshow

Collections from Curaçao

Neighborhood Seafood Market in Rome, Italy

Article

Seafood for Thought

A glowing ocean surface.

Article

Six Ways to See Ocean Ocean Bioluminescence