The world’s nations and regions, both developed and developing, confront significant and complex challenges in managing fishery resources in the 21^st century.  Is the current supply and range of training opportunities sufficient and capable of meeting the demand for effective 21^st century fishery management? To address this and other questions, organizers convened the inaugural international workshop, Training Managers for 21^st Century Fisheries, in Queenstown, NZ, on December 5-7, 2001. This workshop brought together sixty three recognized government, industry, academic, and non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders from Oceania, North America, and Europe to discuss fishery management challenges and to define the training, education, and professional working environments necessary to produce 21^st Century fishery managers.   

Workshop participants were engaged and passionate about the many ideas and strategies discussed at the workshop, and clearly saw value in developing training capacity for 21^st century fisheries managers.  Since December, 2001, and a follow-up meeting at the IIFET 2002 Conference in Wellington, NZ, the project has gained in interest. However, this momentum will be lost without significant commitment, in the form of funding, time, and cooperation, to strategies and coordination of this effort.  

This website was created to facilitate cooperation and coordination of the continued effort to develop training capacity for 21st century fisheries.