Alaskan Observers, Inc. (AOI) is a Washington-based corporation which was founded in 1988 to meet the ever increasing need for trained, professional observers in the domestic fishing industry. AOI has been a contractor in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Shellfish Observer Program since that program's inception in the September of 1988. With the advent of National Marine Fisheries Service Groundfish Observer Program in December of 1989, AOI also began to supply observers to the groundfish industry.