The Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC) was established under an agreement formulated in Baguio, Philippines, on 26 February 1948, which entered into force on 9 November 1948. At its Fourth Session in the same year, the FAO approved the establishment of this body under Article XIV of its Constitution, under the title "Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council." At its seventeenth Session (1976), the name was changed to the "Indo-Pacific Fishery Commission" and the Agreement was amended in order to change the functions of the body. The IPFC Agreement was further amended by the Commission at its Twenty-fourth Session in 1993, when it assumed it's current name, and most recently at the Twenty-Fifth Session of the Commission in Seoul in October 1996. (In total, the 1948 Agreement has been subject to seven amendments in 1952, 1955, 1958, 1961, 1977, 1993 and 1996).

As an FAO regional body, membership of the Commission is open to Member and Associate Member nations of FAO. Non-member States, which are members of the UN, or any of it's specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency, may be admitted as members by a two-thirds majority of the Commission's membership. The are currently twenty members of the Commission, including a large number of developing States.

The principal organ is the Commission itself, which meets at least once every two years unless otherwise directed by a majority of the members. Each member has one vote in the Commission and decisions are generally taken by a simple majority of the votes cast. In addition to the Commission, there is an Executive Committee, consisting of the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman, the immediately retired Chairman and two members elected by the Commission. The FAO acts as the Secretariat for the Commission. There is no standing scientific committee, but the Commission is empowered to establish temporary, special or standing committees to study and report on matters pertaining to its purposes and working parties to study and recommend on specific technical problems. There are currently two subsidiary committees, the Aquaculture and Inland Fisheries Committee and the Committee on Marine Fisheries and four working parties on Aquaculture and Inland Fisheries; on Marine Fisheries; on Fish Technology and Marketing; and on Fishery Statistics and Economics.

(a) to keep under review the state of these resources and of the industries based on them;
  
(b) to formulate and recommend measures and to initiate and carry out programmes or projects to:
  
  (i) increase the efficiency and sustainable productivity of fisheries and aquaculture;
  (ii) conserve and manage resources;
  (iii) protect resources from pollution;
  
(c) to keep under review the economic and social aspects of fishing and aquaculture industries and recommend measures aimed at improving the living and working conditions of fishermen and other workers in these industries and otherwise at improving the contribution of each fishery to social and economic goals;
  
(d) to promote programmes for mariculture and coastal fisheries enhancement;
  
(e) to encourage, recommend, coordinate and, as appropriate, undertake training and extension activities in all aspects of fisheries;
   
(f) to encourage, recommend, coordinate and, as appropriate, undertake research and development activities in all aspects of fisheries;
  
(g) to assemble, publish or otherwise disseminate information regarding the living aquatic resources and fisheries based on these resources; and
  
(h) to carry out such other activities as may be necessary for the Commission to achieve its purpose as defined above.