The Recruitment Processes Program at NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) has been collecting ichthyoplankton in the Northeast Pacific and Bering Sea since the early 1970s, yielding an invaluable collection of specimens and a comprehensive dataset of locality, distribution, and abundance information for the early life history (ELH) stages of fishes in the area. This work led to the publication of a taxonomic guide to the identification of the eggs and larvae of >200 species of fishes (Matarese et al., 1989) and an atlas that presents data on spatial and temporal trends in the dominant fish eggs and larvae (Matarese et al., 2003). The consolidation of data (updated from the taxonomic guide, atlas, and associated metadata) from these sources form the backbone of the Ichthyoplankton Information System (IIS). The IIS is an online, interactive, searchable information system that is routinely updated to include the most current publications. The IIS consolidates over 40 years of fish ELH data representing almost 300 taxa into a single website that is accessible to everyone. The IIS is an invaluable tool providing the most up-to-date information on the ELH of fishes in the Northeast Pacific (U.S. West Coast and Gulf of Alaska), Bering Sea, and the U.S. Arctic (Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea), including some of the most diverse and commercially valuable ecosystems in the world.