This book had its origin in a 2001 conference called ‘Putting Fishers’ Knowledge to Work’ inspired by the late Bob Johannes. For Bob, this conference was one more step in a lifetime of work concerned with bridging the gap between fishers and natural and social scientists. It was also part of his larger vision to create an active, global com-munity of researchers, fishers and fishing communities working together to deepen our collective understanding of marine resources and management (see Ruddle, 2003). At the conference, Bob brought to our attention that although there are many international centres devoted to terrestrial indigenous knowledge, no such centre exists for fisheries knowledge. He urged conference participants to seek support to create one or more such centres dedicated to the collection, synthesis, archiving and dissemination of fishers’ ecological knowledge.This first major international conference of its kind explored the nature of indigenous, small-scale and industrial fishers’ knowledge and its relevance for improved science and management in fisheries.