Some estimates report the world’s oceans are home to 20,000 species of fish. Ocean fishes come in all shapes, sizes, colors and live in drastically different depths and temperatures. Despite this diversity, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported in 2016 that 89.5% of fish stocks are fully fished or overfished.
Learn fun facts and how you can help you favorite ocean fishes – from Atlantic bluefin tuna to blue tang – by clicking a species below.
The Mexico lookdown is native to shallow, coastal waters from the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico to northern South America. Mexican lookdowns are foraging predators that feed over sandy and muddy soft bottoms. They are known to eat a variety of small invertebrates – including shrimps, squids, and polychaete worms – as well as small fishes. They feed … Read more
Leafy seadragons are very poor swimmers and rely on their camouflage to avoid predation. They are relatively large compared to their closely related species and reach lengths of up to one foot (30 cm) long. Leafy seadragons eat small, plankton crustaceans but are small enough themselves and have sufficient vision to see and attack individual prey … Read more
The John Dory is an active predator and eats a variety of schooling fishes and invertebrates. It lives in a wide depth range, from 15 feet (5 m) to 1200 feet (360 m) and usually stays near the seafloor, over both soft and hard bottoms. John Dories are medium-sized predators in the systems in which they live. They … Read more
Garden eels burrow tail first into the sand, and several individuals (as many as hundreds) live close to each other, forming “gardens” of eels that sway back and forth and bob up and down like prairie dogs in order to balance their need to feed with the security that their burrows provide. The white-ring garden … Read more
The guineafowl puffer, like all puffers, has powerful jaws and beak-like teeth. The teeth of the upper jaw are fused into two tooth plates, as are the teeth in the lower jaw. In fact, the family name for puffers (Tetraodontidae) means “four teeth,” reflecting the two tooth plates that these fishes have in each jaw. Guineafowl puffers … Read more
Wahoo are powerful swimmers and aggressive predators that feed on a variety of schooling fishes and pelagic squids. Unlike the true tunas and the billfishes, this species does not have the ability to regulate its body temperature, but it is still one of the open ocean’s fastest fishes. When excited – particularly when hunting – wahoo often … Read more
French angelfish are foragers and eat a variety of sessile invertebrates and plants, including sponges, algae, soft corals, tunicates, and others. Juveniles clean parasites and loose scales off of large fishes, including some that are predatory. French angelfish typically forage in pairs. In fact, they are almost always observed in pairs, which they form for mating and to … Read more
Tropical two-wing flyingfish feed on plankton crustaceans and other small invertebrates. They have large eyes and excellent eyesight and can therefore hunt and eat individual plankton. This is in stark contrast to the very large-bodied filter feeders (like the whale shark or basking shark), which blindly filter huge volumes of water in order to obtain sufficient food. Tropical two-wing … Read more
The common dolphinfish is an open ocean predator that eats small fishes, squids, and pelagic crustaceans. It is also an important prey species for sharks, billfishes, and other large predators. Therefore, much like the skipjack tuna, the common dolphinfish plays a vital intermediate role in open ocean food webs. The males are larger than females and reach lengths of … Read more
Like all flatfishes, summer flounder have both of their eyes on the same side of their heads, and they live on the seafloor, lying on their blind side, with their eyes facing the open water column. This species is one of several “sand flounders,” with both eyes on the left side of the head. Amazingly, when they … Read more
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We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.