Data are increasingly available, from ocean and climate data to commercial and recreational fishing data. Researchers are increasingly challenged to not just collect their own data but integrate larger available datasets, yet this can be a daunting task. As a quantitative fisheries scientist I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work across areas ranging from oceanography and the East Australian Current to inland fisheries in the Murray-Darling Basin. This experience in integrating a large variety of data sources has highlighted to me the value of these large sets. In this talk I will cover a few case studies demonstrating how large-scale open access data can be integrated with fisheries specific data to improve our understanding of ecosystem and population processes.