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

Map showing the range of the eastern and western populations of Atlantic bluefin tuna and their spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea.

Article

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus)

A blue parrotfish hides among coral.

Article

Tough Teeth and Parrotfish Poop

Tiny jellies in a petri dish.

Article

Fishing for Plastic: Science in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Screenshot from video of a red whalefish swimming in the ocean.

Video

Whalefish Swimming in the Ocean

A school of mahi mahi.

Article

From Larvae to Adults – Finding Impacts of an Oil Spill on Mahi-Mahi

Colorful Christmas tree worms

Slideshow

Happy Holidays from the Ocean!

Overfishing is leading to an abundance of less desirable species like jellyfish.

Article

Peanut Butter and Jellyfish

Wooden painted fish on a school fence.

Audio

Chinook Salmon: One Species at a Time

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

Article

Following the Akule

a hairy frogfish with a dark background

Article

Anglerfish Lure Prey Throughout the Ocean

Fish swim underwater amidst mangrove roots at Bocas del Toro, Panama.

Article

On the Trail of DNA in the Ocean

Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative researchers collect samples from a Pensacola Beach with oil layers in the sand. They use genomics to track how the communities of microbes change as they digest different components of oil after a spill.

Article

Three Ways You Can Use Genomics to Study Oil Spill Impacts