how many different types of fish are in the sea?

Question: how many different types of fish are in the sea?
- Keywords:
  biodiversity,
  ecology,
  fish,
  marine
Asked by to Thon, Catherine, James, Natalie, Shaylon on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
- James Bell answered on 19 Jun 2014:
  
  Good question, the honest answer is nobody knows. Fish make up about half of all vertebrate species (animals that have spines) so far as we know. There was a big effort called the Census of Marine Life that ran 2000-2010 to try and get a better idea of marine species richness. Currently the best estimate is somewhere around a quarter of a million (250,000 species) but because there’s loads about marine biology we still don’t know, it could be lots more still
- Anthony Caravaggi answered on 19 Jun 2014:
  
  I’m just going to add a note to James’ answer. Be aware that the figure of 250,000 species from the Census of Marine Life was counting all marine species. As far as I’m aware, there are around 28,000 known species of fish, that’s including freshwater species.

Question: how many different types of fish are in the sea?