Small-scale fisheries targeting seabed (“benthic”) resources (“S-fisheries”) conform a category with well-defined characteristics. The spatial structure of stocks tends to be mirrored by the dynamics of the fishing process and the geography of fishing communities. The significance of the spatial dimension explains the high diversity of tenure arrangements observed in S-fisheries: from loose access to access privileges based on a quota, a territory or a combination of the two. Privileges can be vested on individuals, boats or organizations, and in addition rights of traditional or indigenous users are honored in many fisheries. We selected and discuss a collection of S-fisheries from Latin America that illustrate that diversity of tenure arrangements, and classify them according to a typology intended to capture the main axes of the observed diversity. Several transversal issues are comparatively discussed across cases.