This audio overview provides insight into fish winter survival strategies, explaining how cold-blooded species adapt to cold freshwater environments. Fish slow their metabolisms and reduce activity, gathering in schools and moving to deeper waters that are denser, warmer, and more oxygenated. Ice cover and snowpack provide crucial insulation against frigid temperatures.

For cold-water fish like lake trout, walleye, and pike, winter is a time they thrive, utilizing biochemical adaptations and different enzyme configurations to maintain body processes. Some fish, like koi, may even burrow into soft sediments to become dormant. The overview also addresses the significant impact of climate change, detailing how warming waters and reduced ice volume threaten cold-water fish habitats, affecting their breeding and feeding behaviors, and increasing vulnerability to predators like the sea lamprey. It highlights the cultural significance of ice fishing and the challenges faced by culturally important species like the whitefish.