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.

Although satellite-sensed oceanographic data have been collected over a 20-year period and major application advances have been made over the past 5 years, the Scientific Council of NAFO recognized that new opportunities for application to fisheries research are not being fully exploited. Accordingly, at its meeting in June 1980, the Council agreed that a special session on "Remote Sensing Methods and Their Possible Application to Fisheries Science" would be held during its Annual Meeting in September 1981.

The purpose of this Special Session was to focus on remote-sensing applications relevant to fisheries research through both invited and contributed papers, thereby updating participants on the demonstrated and potential usefulness of remote sensing techniques in NAFO's particular field of interest.

The Scientific Council, noting that the Session gave a good review of remote-sensing techniques and provided a useful and concise account of the application of these techniques to fisheries science, decided that the papers presented at the Session should be published collectively in a volume of NAFO Scientific Council Studies. Apart from updating and minor editing, the 12 contributions are included in this issue. They not only serve as a record of the Special Session in September 1981 but hopefully will stimulate a broader audience to investigate and utilize remote-sensing data as a valuable adjunct to their fisheries research programs.