The Chilean fishes of the family Macrouridae have historically been of little interest to the fisheries community in the SE Pacific. Landings of these fishes have only been officially recorded since 2000. Nevertheless there is evidence that macrourids have been incidentally caught as by-catch since the middle of the 20(th) century. Species of the genera Coelorinchus (formerly known as Caelorinchus), Coryphaenoides, Lucigadus, Macrourus and Nezwnia are common as by-catch. It now appears important to apply fisheries management to these species, recording them as a unit, but obtaining objective data for each species. This should include an overall perspective on the species having a wide geographic distribution.