Small-scale fisheries are recognized as data poor. The multitude of landing sites, the number of people involved in the value chains, the informality of much of the small-scale fishing economy and the lack of resources to monitor catches, lead us to seek solutions to improve science-based management decision making. Throughout 22 years, COBI has sensitized communities on the importance of data collection and conducted workshops to train them in these activities, sharing the results and analysis obtained, and encouraging them to share their knowledge nationally and internationally. In this way, we have strengthened the empowerment of fishing communities as citizen scientists, uniting their traditional knowledge with scientific robustness for the management of information in favor of sustainable fisheries.