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 large black grouper swims amidst coral.

Article

Protecting the Most Vulnerable Fish After an Oil Spill

Convict surgeonfish are the roaming sheep of the reef but, instead of noshing on grass, they feed on algae.

Article

Helpful Herbivores

A Barbudan fisherman with a fresh lobster catch!

Article

The Blue Halo – Barbuda and Beyond

a flounder blends into the sandy seafloor

Article

Fish Fins that can Taste

The Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure was developed to help scientists study coral reef diversity and have now been adopted broadly to study diversity around the world.

Article

Uncovering Biodiversity… with ARMS and a Submarine Claw

A tusk shell hermit crab peeks out of his shell.

Article

Uncovering Biodiversity Before It Disappears

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

Slideshow

Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea

A female napoleon wrasse swims by a reef

Article

An App Helps Scientists Combat Illegal Fish Trade

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 submersible explores the deep reefs off of Curacao in the Caribbean.

Article

A New Ocean Zone Described with the Help of a Submersible

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

Seven of the newly discovered Starksia blennies, small fish with elongated bodies

Article

Scientists Discover Seven New Species of Fish