Colorful fish swim in blue water.

Fish

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.

Clever Measures Track Fishing Pressures

A blue parrotfish

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.

Fish Get Risky Around Oil

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

Why the Littlest Fish Matter a Whole Lot

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

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

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A photo of a squid using bioluminescence to hide in the deep sea.

Bioluminescence

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.

Scientists Catalog Life on the Island of Moorea

an adult and baby coelacanth specimens on display

Coelacanth

A sea toad from the deep waters off of Curacao.

Collections from Curaçao

This shrimp is colored to fit in - probably why they are common members of the seaweed community.

A World Adrift: Life in the Sargassum Slideshow

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

Celebrating Marine Moms

“On an afternoon dive, I spotted a small group of sweetlips in the current among a shoal of juvenile convict blennies. It took me some time to get close to the fish without spooking them. I took several frames but this one was my favorite because of the

Ocean Fish Pictures

Colorful Christmas tree worms

Happy Holidays from the Ocean!

A Pontoh pygmy seahorse

10 Things You Never Knew About Seahorses

X-ray image of a winghead shark

X-Rays of Fish Reveal Diversity

This aptly named fish has two long fangs.

Creepy Critters: Marine Life Surfaces for Halloween

Colorful fishes throng a reef in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Bizarre and Beautiful Coral Reef Animals

Banner Credit

Russell Gilbert, flickr