Fish harvest is an important part of the aquaculture and commercial fishing. Manual operation not only takes time and effort, but also causes great damage to the fish body. As an important mechanical equipment in fishery production activities, the fish pump has the advantages of simple operation, high working efficiency, and low fish body damage rate. It is more and more popular in aquaculture and fishing industries. This paper briefly introduces the types, working principles and main application fields of several common fish pumps, analyzes the research progress and characteristics of fish pumps at home and abroad in the aspects of basic research, ocean fishing vessel, aquaculture and intelligent control,  and puts forward the functions of fish pumps and research direction in the future based on the comparative analysis of the research characteristics of fish pumps at home and abroad in recent years, so as to promote the popularization and application of fish pump in China and improve the modernization level of fishery equipment.