774 articles
Fishing
Fishing: catching fish and aquatic organisms commercially, recreationally, or for subsistence. Wild capture was 91 million tons in 2022; 64.5% of assessed marine stocks are sustainably exploited; aquaculture surpassed wild catch in 2022.
Fishing net
Fishing net: meshed gear for capturing fish by gilling, entangling, encircling, or towing. Main types are gillnets, trammel nets, seines, purse seines, and trawls; key issues are mesh-size selectivity, bycatch, discards, and ghost fishing from lost gear.
Fishing rod
Fishing rod: flexible shaft with reel and guides for casting and playing fish. Types include spinning, baitcasting, spincast, and fly rods; materials evolved from hazel and split bamboo (1845, Samuel Phillipe) to fiberglass and carbon fibre.
Fishing techniques
Fishing techniques are the gears and methods for catching aquatic life, classified as passive (gillnets, longlines, pots) or active (trawls, seines). Bottom trawling supplies about a quarter of wild marine catch but causes most seabed disturbance and discards.
Flatfish
Flatfish (Pleuronectiformes), also called flounders, soles, and halibuts, are asymmetrical benthic fishes whose both eyes migrate to one side during metamorphosis; over 500 species, commercially important, with Atlantic halibut endangered.
Flounder
Flounder: common name for flatfishes (order Pleuronectiformes, families Bothidae, Pleuronectidae, Paralichthyidae) with both eyes on one side of a flattened body; includes summer, winter, and arrowtooth flounder; distinct from halibut and sole.
Flowerhorn cichlid
Flowerhorn cichlid (louhan), a man-made hybrid ornamental cichlid (Cichlasoma x Paraneetroplus x Amphilophus) prized for head humps; invasive in Lake Matano, Sulawesi, and Philippine lakes, dominating food webs and preying on endemic fish.
Fluminense
Fluminense (FEOW ecoregion 352), a freshwater ecoregion of coastal Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, between the Paraíba do Sul and Restinga da Marambaia; tropical coastal rivers with 42% endemic fish, distinct from the Fluminense Football Club.
Fly fishing
Fly fishing: an angling method where the weighted fly line, not the lure, casts a light artificial fly. Earliest record A.D. 200 (Aelian, Macedonia); 7.9 million U.S. participants in 2025.
Flying fish
Flying fish (Exocoetidae), about 50 Beloniformes species, glide over the sea on wing-like pectoral fins to escape predators; studied aerodynamically, first molecular phylogeny 2011, managed Caribbean fishery.
Freshwater drum
Freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) is a North American freshwater fish of the drum family Sciaenidae, ranging from Hudson Bay to Guatemala and known as sheepshead or gaspergou.
Freshwater fish
Freshwater fish: fish living in rivers, lakes, and wetlands; 42.7% of all fish species occur only in freshwater. Key facts: 25% threatened with extinction (IUCN), migratory populations down 81% since 1970, inland fisheries worth about USD 19 billion.
Frilled shark
Frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus), a rare deepwater Hexanchiformes shark with six frilly gill slits, three-cusped teeth, eel-like body to 2 m, 120–1500 m depth, Near Threatened, gestation possibly 3.5 years.
Fu Yun Lai Aquarium
Fu Yun Lai Aquarium is an aquarium shop and public aquarium at 68, Jalan Besar, Gunung Rapat, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, selling guppies, goldfish, aquarium supplies, pet food, and fishing bait, with phone +60 16-593 7512.
Fugu (河豚)
Fugu (河豚, fuku) is Japanese pufferfish cuisine containing tetrodotoxin, served only by licensed handlers; 22 of 50+ Japanese species are edible, liver is banned, and poisoning cases still occur yearly.
Furo
Furo (Gistl 1848, replacing Eugnathus Agassiz 1843) is an extinct halecomorph fossil fish genus from the Triassic to Upper Jurassic of Europe, with six provisional species in the German Solnhofen and Nusplingen Plattenkalk and type species F. orthostomus.
Gadella maraldi
Gadella maraldi (gadella) is a morid cod (Gadiformes, Moridae) of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean upper slope, 30 cm max length, 150–900 m depth, IUCN Least Concern, minor commercial use.
Gadidae
Gadidae, the true cods, is a family of marine ray-finned fishes including the Atlantic cod, haddock, and pollocks, and among the world's most important food fishes.
Gadiformes
Gadiformes is an order of ray-finned fishes containing the cods and their relatives, including haddock, whiting, pollock, grenadiers, and hakes. They support some of the largest fisheries in existence.
Gadus macrocephalus
Gadus macrocephalus, the Pacific cod, is a marine fish of the cod family found in the North Pacific and important to commercial fisheries in Alaska, Russia, and Japan.
Galapagos shark
Galapagos shark (Carcharhinus galapagensis), a large requiem shark of oceanic islands worldwide; described 1905, viviparous, IUCN Near Threatened (2003) with local declines from fishing.
Galeorhinus galeus
Galeorhinus galeus, the tope, school, or soupfin shark, a temperate houndshark (Triakidae) of all major oceans; six isolated subpopulations, IUCN Critically Endangered 2020, CMS Appendix II, proposed US ESA threatened listing 2026.
Galeus melastomus
Galeus melastomus, the blackmouth catshark (Rafinesque, 1810), a deepwater Pentanchidae shark of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, dark-mouthed, spotted, to 90 cm, oviparous, IUCN Least Concern.
Gar
Gar, family Lepisosteidae: seven predatory freshwater species in genera Atractosteus and Lepisosteus, armored in ganoid scales, air-breathing via vascularized swim bladder; alligator gar reaches 10 ft, 350 lbs and is vulnerable from habitat loss.
Garum
Garum: fermented Roman fish sauce made from crushed fish in brine, related to liquamen, allec, and muria; produced at cetariae in Hispania and North Africa, exported empire-wide, with Pompeii glutamate residues and Byzantine-era Cartagena remains.
Gasterosteus aculeatus
Gasterosteus aculeatus, the three-spined stickleback, is a small ray-finned fish living in marine, brackish, and freshwater habitats across the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and a model for studying parallel evolution.
Giant grouper
Giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus), also Queensland grouper or brindle bass: the largest reef fish of the Indo-Pacific, reaching about 2.7 m and over 400 kg; IUCN Data Deficient, protogynous hermaphrodite, and the parent species of Vietnam's profitable hybrid grouper aquaculture crop.
Giant oarfish
The giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne), also called king of herrings, is a deep-sea ribbon-shaped fish, the longest bony fish alive, documented to 8 m (26 ft) and found worldwide.
Giant oceanic manta ray
Giant oceanic manta ray (Mobula birostris), world's largest ray, up to 700 cm disc width, circumglobal; Endangered IUCN 2020; filter-feeds on zooplankton via cephalic lobes; one pup every 4-5 years; distinct from reef manta M. alfredi.
Giant trevally
The giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis) is a large marine fish of the jack family Carangidae, widespread in the tropical Indo-Pacific and popular as a commercial fish and gamefish.