It has been just over twenty years since the first electronic monitoring (EM) trial was implemented in a British Columbia crab fishery in 1999. A few years later a pilot to monitor halibut effort in an Alaska longline fishery was initiated. The buzz caught on and in 2003 the first EM pilot launched in New Zealand, to monitor seabird interactions with gill nets. Two more years down the road and the first trial geared towards monitoring bycatch was launched in Australia. Fast forward nearly two decades and there are now tons of pilots and full-scale electronic monitoring - and reporting - (EMR) programs in various stages of operation around the world, with these countries still very much at the forefront of progress.