- This page is about the animals which live in water. For other meanings, please see Fish (disambiguation).
A fish is a poikilothermic (cold-blooded) * water-dwelling
vertebrate with gills. There are over
27,000 species of fish, making them the most diverse group of vertebrates.
Taxonomically, fish are a paraphyletic group whose exact relationships are
much debated; a common division is into the jawless fishes (class Agnatha, 75 species including lampreys and hagfish), the cartilaginous fishes (class Chondrichthyes, 800 species including sharks and rays), with the remainder classed as bony fishes (class Osteichthyes).
Fishes come in different sizes, from the 14-meter (45 ft) whale shark to a
7-mm (just over 1/4 of an inch) long stout infantfish. Many types
of aquatic animals named "fish", such as jellyfish and cuttlefish, are not true fish.
* Certain species of tuna maintain an elevated core temperature, so they are not, strictly speaking, poikilothermic. The Great White Shark is the only known truly endothermic (warm-blooded) fish.
Note on usage: "fish" vs. "fishes"
"Fishes" is the proper English plural form of "fish" that biologists use when speaking about two or more fish species, as in "There are over 25,000 fishes in the world" (meaning that there are over 25,000 fish species in the
world). When speaking of two or more individual fish organisms, then the word
"fish" is used, as in "There are several million fish in the species Gadus morhua" (meaning that G. morhua
comprises several million individuals). To see both in action, consider the statement "There are twelve fish in this aquarium,
representing five fishes" (meaning that the aquarium contains twelve individuals, some of the same species and some of different
species, for a total of five species).
Fish ecology
Fishes can be found in almost all large bodies of water in either salt, brackish
or fresh water, at depths ranging from just below the surface to several thousand meters. However, hyper-saline lakes like the
Great Salt Lake do not support fish. Some species of fish have been
specially bred to be kept and displayed in an aquarium.
Fish are an important source of food. Other water-dwelling animals such as mollusks and crustaceans (commonly called
shellfish) are often considered as fish when used as food. Catching fish for the purpose of food or sport is known as fishing. The annual yield from all fisheries worldwide is about 100 million tonnes.
Overfishing is a threat to many species of fish. On May 15, 2003, the journal Nature reported that all large oceanic fish species worldwide
had been so systematically overcaught that fewer than 10% of 1950 levels remained. [1] (http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030514.wfish1405/BNStory/National/)
Particularly imperilled were sharks, Atlantic cod,
Bluefin tuna, and Pacific sardines. The authors recommended immediate, drastic cutbacks in fish catches and reservation of ocean habitats worldwide.
External links
|
