Top Fish Flashcards

Fish are one of the main branches of the animal kingdom. They’re extremely diverse, but they all share a few basic characteristics: they have spinal cords, just like human beings; they have fins rather than hands or wings; and they breathe underwater, using gills to extract oxygen directly from the water.

Other than that, they don’t have much in common! Some are tiny, like the dwarf guppies of the south pacific, which would fit comfortably on your pinky nail. Others, like the whale shark, are so massive that they could easily swallow a human being in one gulp.

Fish have always been one of the main food sources for human beings. Our planet is two-thirds water, and in all that water there is a rich supply of fish for us to eat – if we can figure out how to catch them! Nearly every culture, if they live anywhere near the water, has developed some technology for fishing by net, hook, spear, or even by hand. Unfortunately, in some cases our technologies have been too effective, and we’ve fished our food supplies almost out of existence!
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