The small-scale cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) fishery in Galician waters (NW Spain) was studied using a model based on data obtained from fishers. This model was applied using information obtained from the small-scale Galician fleet in 1998. A total of 139 personal interviews were carried out at 62 Galician ports. This information was used to estimate catches per unit effort (CPUE) and total catch for the cuttlefish gillnet fishery. The fleet, which fishes in Galician waters within ICES divisions VIIIc and IXa, was composed of two groups: 600 vessels fishing for cuttlefish in only five months of the year (short season: November to March), and 141 vessels fishing for cuttlefish all year (extended season). Estimated total catch during the fishing season for the whole Galician fleet was 1301 t (869 t short season and 432 t extended season) and average CPUE values were 14.5 kg haul-1 trip-1 vessel-1 (short season) and 12.8 kg haul-1 trip-1 vessel-1 (extended season). To test the reliability of the model, the outputs obtained from the model for a subset of 37 ports (59.7% of all ports) were compared with the official catch statistics for these ports. Differences between total catches estimated by the model and those determined directly at these ports were not significant.