MES provides administrative and non-scientific technical support services to the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), a region of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an agency of the Department of Commerce. The NWFSC is charged with the mission of stewardship for living marine resources in the pacific northwest, including: Northern California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

The NWFSC is composed of the Office of the Science Director and five divisions: Conservation Biology, Resource Enhancement and Utilization Technologies, Fish Ecology, Fishery Resource Analysis and Monitoring, and Environmental Conservation.

The services that MES provides include: