Fish

Aquatic cold-blooded vertebrate with a two-chambered heart that oxygenates blood through thoracic gills. There are 25,000 recognized species of fish, and 200 to 300 new species are discovered each year. The earliest record of Homo sapiens eating fish is from 380,000 years ago, and the first recorded recipe was Chinese, dated 1300 BC, for a salad of marinated carp. The Catholic Church is credited with boosting fish consumption beginning in the Middle Ages, ordering 166 days of fasting each year, during which fish was permitted. Worldwide, 98 million tons (89 million tonnes) of fish are caught every year, 84 percent of which are from saltwater and the remainder from freshwater.

Flatfish is a 500-species category of lean, sweet-fleshed fish, with eyes on the upper side of its slender, horizontal body, making it compatible with its habitat on the Atlantic and Pacific ocean floor; includes sole, flounder and halibut. Roundfish is a general term referring to fish with eyes on either side of their head, as opposed to flatfish. Roundfish is also the name for a plentiful freshwater whitefish, Coregonus quadrilateralis, found in Britain, the U.S. and Alaska. Shellfish are aquatic shelled invertebrates, categorized either as mollusks or crustaceans. See also akule, albacore, alewife, amberjack, anchovy, aquaculture, bass, blawn fish, bluefish, bream, brill, burbot, cabezone, carp, catfish, char, cisco, cod, crayfish, drum, eel, grayling, haddock, hake, halibut, herring, John Dory, lamprey, mackerel, menhaden, monkfish, perch, pickerel, pollack, pompano, porgy, poutine, prahoc, pufferfish, red mullet, salmon, salt cod, sardine, scrod, shad, smelt, sole, sprat, tautog, turbot.

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