The Republic of Panama, has the advantage of having coasts, in the Pacific Ocean as well as in the Atlantic Ocean, which offers the privilege of accessing the vast sea richness that both ocean have to offer.

However, it is necessary to acknowledge that the tropical seas, the ones that caress our shores, have a great diversity of species. Due to this fact Panama has concentrated its efforts in the search of its marine resources, allowing in this last 20 years, the development of the industrial sector guided mainly to capture marine resources such as shrimps and small pelagic ( anchovy and herring).

The total export value of fishing product for the year 2001 was of 320 million dollars, noticing a great increase of 69 million for the year 2000, in which 251 million dollars were obtained. The two main items of importance in fishing products are: fresh or frozen fish and shrimp. The United States represents the main export market for shrimps, followed the European markets.

The fishing economic activity in the Republic of Panama is mainly developed in the coastal zone of the Pacific seaboard. Lobsters are still one the main products unloaded with a high aggregated value in the export market. Industrial fishing counts with a fleet of 240 shrimp boats, 31 fishmongers and 5,689 artisan's boats. For the handling and processing of fishing products there is an industrial basis with small and medium size companies.

The Panama Maritime Authority has a computerized data of all the fishing boats in the country, artisans as well as industrials, also of those with international license.

For these, there is a monitoring system for vessels through a satellite, in order to guarantee that they perform their duties inside the geographical coordinates for which the license has been issued, and complying with the conservation standards and arrangement from the different fishing organizations.

Following international fishing agreements, it's an indispensable requirement in Panama, that every fishing vessel on international waters bear the national flag, they should have an international fishing license as well as a buoy that will allow carrying out their activities, through a Satellite Monitoring System (VMS) and the commitment to offer statistical information about their unloading.

In the last years the area of investigation has been developed with investments to improve the infrastructure of the scientific laboratory of tuna ( tuna farms), from the Japanese Agency of Cooperation in Ultramar, jointly with the Interamerican Commission of Tropical Tuna. There have been scientific advances in reference to the closed cycle of reproduction of tuna fish, knowledge that has been applied to similar studies for natives species such as snappers and flounders.

The fishing sector and the marine resources currently are the pillars for growth and development of the Panamanian economy.