In order to eat "regular" Kosher animals, there is a requirement for the animal to undergo Shechita (ritual slaughter). If an animal were to be killed / die without Shechita it is forbidden to be eaten.
Yet, by Kosher fish we find no such requirement. To eat fish, one can simply kill it and it is Kosher to eat.
Why is there this distinction? What makes fish different than other types of animals (other than the fact that the Torah said they are)?
Answer
In Chullin 27b, the Gemara points out that "animals, which were created from earth, are made kosher via two 'signs' [cutting the windpipe and the esophagus]; fish, which were created from the water, don't need anything to make them kosher; birds, which were created from the mud [containing both earth and water - Rashi], are made kosher via one 'sign.'"
Maharsha there relates this to the idea that earth is more "earthy," materialistic and unspiritual, than water (compare Rambam, Hil. Yesodei Hatorah 3:10). So animals, which were created from such coarse matter, need shechitah - the main purpose of which is to drain their lifeblood - to refine their physicality and make it suitable for human consumption, since we are also made from dust. Birds - same thing, but less so, so they need the refinement brought about through shechitah, albeit of only one siman. Fish, whose bodies were created from a more refined material than ours - then no refinement is needed to make them edible. (See also https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/3999/37.)
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