In order to meet the needs of consumers who can taste fresh fish which are from different places, keep-alive transportation of fish is particularly important. Anesthesia keep-alive transportation plays an important role in reducing transport injury and improving transport survival rate This article summarizes the application of four common fishery anesthetics in fish anesthesia keep-alive transportation, discusses the main factors affecting the survival rate of anesthesia keep-alive transportation, the effects of anesthetics on fish physiology and biochemistry, and the detection technology of anesthetic residues and summarizes the current problems and development prospects of anesthesia keep-alive transportation. At present, researches on anesthetics for fisheries are mainly focused on the anesthetic effects for different aquatic products and the effects on fish physiology and biochemistry, and there are few studies on the effects of fish flavor. New types of fishing anesthetics and rapid detection technology for anesthetic residues will be the focus of future research.