International commercial fishing in Northwest Atlantic waters dates back to the discovery of the rich cod resources off Newfoundland by John Cabot in 1497. His famous quote was:

Noting that Denmark (in respect of Greenland) with the concurrence of Canada  had requested advice on harp and hooded seals, the Scientific Council called a meeting of the Joint ICES/NAFO Working Group on Harp and Hooded seals. This Group met at the Keddy's Dartmouth Inn, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, during 5–9 June 1995, in conjunction with the Scientific Council meetings of 7–21 June 1995. The Group considered the assessment of the stocks and catch options, as reported in Scientific Council Reports, 1995, pages 43–48.

Noting that most of the research documents presented at the Working Group meeting were quite extensive and together presented an excellent summary of current knowledge of the status of the harp and hooded seals, the Council agreed that it would be extremely useful to compile these documents into a single issue of the NAFO Scientific Council Studies. Upon the approval of members of the Working Group, authors were requested to submit their revised papers for a special issue of the Council Studies.

At its meeting during 2–16 June 1993, the Scientific Council noted that a complete scientific review of results from the Northern Cod Science Program of Canada was scheduled for late-1994, and the coordinator of the Program, J. S. Campbell, should be invited to consider a NAFO publication for a collection of papers. The Council noted a group of papers dealing with Northern Cod presented at its June 1993 meeting appeared suitable for a single publication. At its meeting during 7–10 September 1993, the Council expressed its appreciation to J. S. Campbell for accepting this task, and the Secretariat undertook to complete the publication by the end of 1994.

During 4–6 September 1991, the Scientific Council held a Symposium on "Changes in Abundance and Biology of Cod Stocks and Their Possible Causes", with H. Hovgård (Denmark, in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland) as convener. At its meeting in September 1989, the Scientific Council initially agreed to host the 1991 Special Session on Atlantic Cod, and was pleased to welcome R. (Dick) Wells, the well-known Canadian expert on gadoid biology and fishery management science, to convene a Symposium. With the sad, untimely death of Dick Wells in December 1989, the Council was pleased Hovgård agreed to convene the session, and new ideas on the theme and specific topics were considered. The Council decided to dedicate the Symposium in memory of Dick Wells.

Interest in the contributions to the Symposium resulted in the Scientific Council recommendation that papers presented should be published in full or as extended abstracts in a special issue of, with H. Hovgård and T. Amaratunga undertaking the editorial review of the papers.

At the Annual Meeting of the Scientific Council of NAFO in September 1980, it was agreed that a review of environmental conditions in the northwest Atlantic during the 1970-79 decade was desirable. Consequently, a symposium was held at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, on 15-16 September 1981, during which 15 contributions were discussed (NAFO Scientific Council Reports for 1981). Several of the papers were solicited by the convener to ensure that the major aspects of environmental conditions were covered. Twelve of the contributions are included in this volume.