Recently, the parallel interests of ICLARM and the International Develop¬ment Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada came together in a joint decision to set up and fund the Fisheries Social Science Research Network. Both ICLARM and IDRC have histories of encouraging social science research in fisheries and aquaculture and, equally importantly, both have an interest in elevating such research from its present ad hoc status to that of a planned and sustained long¬term program which would enable Asian and Pacific social scientists to make regular and constructive contri¬butions to the management and devel¬opment issues of the sector in their respective countries.