The Institute of Fisheries Management is an international organisation, formed in 1969 and dedicated to the advancement of sustainable fisheries management. Fisheries Management Scotland work closely with the Institute, and in particular its Scottish Branch, with a focus on the development and delivery of training resources for fisheries enforcement in Scotland.

At a UK level, the IFM Training Team have developed a range of distance learning courses as well as specialist one and two day short courses in various subjects. These include the IFM Certificate Course, IFM Certificate Field Course Weekend and Diploma course – see IFM Training.

Due to the completely different fisheries legal system in Scotland, the IFM Branch system operates at national level in Scotland. Fisheries Management Scotland and the Scottish Branch have developed the water bailiff training course to ensure that persons appointed as water bailiffs can demonstrate a sound working knowledge of the legislation and powers of water bailiffs. Examinations are held on a regular basis and we are working on converting the existing training material into a series of online modules to make the course content more user friendly.

Fisheries Management Scotland are represented on the Scottish Branch Committee and meet regularly to discuss matters of common interest.