In 1998, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO)  and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) co-sponsored a workshop to bring together some of the key organizations responsible for the design, management and delivery of at-sea fisheries observer programs in the United States and Canada.

• Proceedings of the First Biennial Canada/U.S. Observer Program Workshop, March 10-12, 1998, Seattle, Washington, USA (Executive Summary)

A second observer program workshop was held in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, June 26-29, 2000. The workshop was again co-sponsored by DFO and NOAA and was expanded in scope to include greater representation from the fishing industry and observers with responsibility for conservation and management of marine resources.

• Proceedings of the Second Biennial Canada/U.S. Fisheries Observer Program Workshop, June 26-29, 2000, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

The Third International Fisheries Observer Conference was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, November 18-21, 2002, and brought together an even broader representation from the international fisheries observer community from 22 different countries. There were close to 200 participants, including 41 observers.

The conference was sponsored by NOAA Fisheries, in cooperation with DFO. The proceedings for the conference will be available in the near future.

• Proceedings of the Third Biennial International Fisheries Observer Program Conference, November 18-21, 2002, New Orleans, LA.

The Fourth International Fisheries Observer Conference was held in Sydney, Australia, November 8-11, 2004. The conference was a great success, attracting nearly 200 delegates from more than 20 countries from around the world. Feedback has been very positive, with all delegates finding the program very successful in addressing current developments and key issues concerning observer programmes. Delegates, sponsors and exhibitors alike found the program to be extremely worthwhile.

• Proceedings of the Fourth International Fisheries Observer Program Conference, November 8-11, 2004, Sydney, Australia.

The Fifth International Fisheries Observers Conference, held in Victoria, BC, Canada, May 15-18, 2007, attracted over 260 delegates with representation from 40 countries including all the major regions of the globe. This surpassed the international participation in past conferences by far, and resulted in a much broader representation of the fisheries observer sphere of influence – in keeping with the theme, “Building Better Fishery Monitoring Programs Through Partnerships Around the World.” All goals and objectives proposed by the conference committee were addressed very successfully. Participants’ responses to the conference were extremely positive, with one comment that the international observer community will most likely recognize eras of “before and after Victoria.”

• Proceedings of the Fifth International Fisheries Observer Program Conference, May 15-18, 2007, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
• Conference program and presenters list

The proceedings of all five of the previous conferences may be downloaded from this page. The conference proceedings record the information that was presented and some of the discussions that occurred at the conferences. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the presenters at the conference and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Marine Fisheries Service or NOAA. The availability of these documents on a NOAA website does not constitute an endorsement of the documents' specific content and statements in the conference proceedings should not be construed as representing NOAA policy or scientific determinations.