A related issue that I see surfacing in the question of access to data is
that of confidentiality.  I would be interest to learn of national
practices, eg, what do national laws say about releasing data that
identifies the results of single indivuals/companies.  I often deal with
countries that publish "all the details" and generally loose the argument
when I assert that when they release all the details then what they get from
the fisheremen/companies won't be the accurate details.  They feel that as
fisheries are in the public domain, the results of the activities should be
in the public domain.

I know that in Canada, laws exist outside of the Department of Fisheries
guaranteeing confidentiality of any data provided to the Government.  In
fact the RCMP (the Mounties!) used to make occassional visits to fisheries
departments to ensure that proper lockable filing cabinets were being used,
etc.

Can other list holders relate respective national practices??

R. Shotton
FAO, Rome.