Finspan

You are a marine researcher logging fish across three depths on your player board: the sunlit surface, the twilight zone and the midnight zone. The game runs over four weeks, and at the end you count points from fish played, eggs laid, young hatched, schools formed and weekly achievements. On your turn you either play a fish card into one of the three columns, paying its cost, or you dive: your diver moves down a column and triggers every fish it passes, which is how eggs get laid, young get hatched and cards get drawn. Fish near the surface trigger more often, while deep ones tend to be worth more. Cards can also be discarded to cover a cost. It is a cousin of Wingspan that plays faster, teaches in ten minutes and finishes in under an hour. A good first engine-builder for a couple, and it plays properly solo.