For a fishing vessel, its diesel engine's energy efficiency is only at 35-40%, with more than half of the energy being wasted as exhaust heat taken away by jacket water, cooling air and exhaust gas. Fishing vessel refrigeration systems driven by the exhaust heat from engines can therefore help achieve energy saving. However, to improve the COMER of these heat driven refrigeration systems and to ensure their operational stability under severe conditions on ocean are of challenges. In this paper, the progress and prospect of utilizing three different kinds of heat driven fishing vessel refrigeration systems, i.e., adsorption refrigeration system, absorption refrigeration system and ejection refrigeration system, are reviewed with a special focus on the techniques for improving system efficiency and stability. A hybrid heat driven refrigeration system, which combines merits of different types of systems, is then introduced. A summary table is provided to summarize and compare the features of adsorption refrigeration systems, absorption refrigeration systems and ejection refrigeration systems used in fishing vessels, followed by conclusions and suggestions for future works. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.