The institute performs research and provides advisory services in the fields of marine ecosystems and aquaculture.

The institute has a highly qualified scientific staff, high-technology research stations and laboratories in Austevoll, Bergen (head office), Flødevigen (Arendal) and Matre, a department in Tromsø and several vessels.

Norwegian Fisheries Investigations ("Norske Fiskeriundersøgelser") was initiated in Oslo in 1864.

Among important scientific contributions was Johan Hjort's pivotal work on «Fluctuations in the Great Fisheries of Northern Europe» (1914).

Einar Lea's use of ASDIC to find herring schools (1947) and the use of Echo Integration for estimating fish abundance (Midtun & Hoff, 1962) are also notable.