In the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), more than 76 records from peer-reviewed and grey literature identified approximately 60 invertebrate taxa harvested for bait and food. The most diverse phyla were Mollusca, followed by Arthropoda and Annelida, with few records of Porifera, Nemertea and Echinodermata. Importance of each phylum differs according to country, with arthropods (Upogebia africana and Kraussillichirus kraussi), and annelids (Marphysa mossambica) being most important in South Africa and Kenya, respectively. Of the taxa utilised, only 42 are reliably identified to species level, suggesting that the diversity of species utilised in the region is greatly underestimated. Most of the data on biology and exploitation were for species from South Africa. Less data were available from Kenya with minimal to none being available from the remaining WIO countries. This limits the understanding of biology and trends in exploitation of most bait taxa, and consequently information required for developing national and regional management policies. Bait management guidelines are available only for South Africa, but require updating in view of changes in use of bait resources. We recommend the development of coordinated multidisciplinary, multicountry research aimed at increasing data and information to feed into policy development and support national and regional bait resource management.