The west coast of Vancouver Island is one of the most productive fishing grounds off western North America. In 1985, a multi-disciplinary study was initiated to provide long-term physical and biological data from this large marine ecosystem that could be used in the development of management strategies for commercial fish stocks. In this paper we review the physical, biological and fisheries oceanography of this system. We use this information to examine the linkages between these components, particularly changes in abundance of major fish species in relation to physical and biological oceanography. In addition, we present an overview of a model developed to synthesize our current knowledge about this ecosystem and the relative importance of climate conditions and predator-prey relationships in determining interannual and longer-term variation in productivity.