On August 18-19, 2003, Pennsylvania Sea Grant, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) co-sponsored the Second Fish Tumors Related to Great Lakes Areas of Concern Conference, held at Penn State Behrend in Erie, Pennsylvania. This conference was a follow up to the January 2003 Fish Tumors Related to Great Lakes Areas of Concern Conference, which brought together more than 40 researchers, fishery and wildlife biologists, pathologists, and agency representatives with the goal of sharing information, concerning fish tumors and deformities from American and Canadian Areas of Concern, and to refine and coordinate the standardization of protocols currently being used to evaluate the fish tumors or other deformities beneficial-use impairment. The purpose of the second conference was to refine and coordinate the standardization of protocols for assessing this beneficial-use impairment, which were highlighted by the fish tumor taskforce subcommittees.