Fisheries data and the Law of the Sea Convention

This article outlines the provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) concerning the collection and exchange of fisheries data. It also examines how the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement has substantially strengthened the provisions of the LOSC in this area. The paper considers briefly the specific problems raised by the attempt to attribute a nationality to catch data, and the related problem of determining where the responsibility lies for reporting data in chartering arrangements.