Characterization of a single pass of cDNA sequence, an expressed sequence tag (EST) has been a fast growing activity in fish genomics. Despite its relatively short history, fish EST databases (dbESTs) have already begun to play a significant role in bridging the gaps in our knowledge on the gene expression in fish genome. This review provides a brief description of the technology for establishing fish dbESTs, its current status, and implication of the ESTs to aquaculture and fisheries science with particular emphasis on the discovery of novel genes for transgenic application, the use of polymorphic EST markers in genetic linkage mapping and the evaluation of signal-responsive gene expression.