This paper summarizes the findings of two partly overlapping comparative international projects on government industry interaction in fisheries management in the seven Nordic countries, the USA, Canada, Spain, France and New Zealand. The case studies are summarized on a country-by-country basis represent various ‘steps’ on the ladder of user participation in fisheries management. The case studies demonstrate that institutions of government-industry cooperation are commonplace within fisheries nations of the Western hemisphere and that user participation is an integral part of a country’s fisheries management regime. Not only were they strongly involved when these regimes were established, but user groups also exercise great influence on how they work in practice. Management councils, boards, committees, or whatever they are called, make the decision-making process more open, less hierarchical and more decentralized than would otherwise be the case. They provide a two-way channel for communication of information and knowledge between industry and government. They are a means of producing support and of sharing responsibility for hard decisions that inevitable pose a challenge to every management system. The general picture seems to be that European fishermen are less fragmented organizationally than their North American counterparts. The better fishermen are organized, the stronger their position. In general, a mixture of institutions with a varying degree of user involvement and responsibility are seen. Despite great differences from country to country, there is a common denominator: they all present a cooperative approach to fisheries management. Decision making is not entirely a government affair but a responsibility and a process that also involves user groups.