The city of Cahuita in Costa Rica hosted the III SmallScale Fisheries Congress from September 26 to 29, 2023. Its theme was: ‘Life, knowledge and culture linked together’. In attendance were numerous fishworkers and shellfish gleaners and their representatives from Costa Rica, along with 21 delegates from Mexico, Honduras and Panama, representing communities dependent on marine small-scale fisheries (SSF). In this region, “coastal communities display a unique cultural and social profile, derived from historical settlement patterns, that sets them apart from inland communities,” according to the Central American Integration System (SICA).