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Fisheries management, in common with most other activities that involve a combination of problem solving and improvement that result in physical solutions, requires that well developed planning is a necessary part of the process. Fishery managers are no different from us all in as much as well all plans. We all plan to lesser or greater degrees: we plan what we are going to eat, for example, and where and when we are going to buy the food we have decided to eat. However, the way we approach fisheries management planning often needs to be more prescriptive. Each fishery will ideally have a written management plan that will have been developed for it; certainly where the fishery management involves more than a solitary individual a plan should be developed and put in place as a priority. It is important to ensure that the aims and objectives are clear and understood that the actions required to achieve them are all considered and planned, and that the tools to measure or monitor the management actions are in place at the inset of the plan and not developed as an afterthought.