Chapter V

THE INADEQUACY OF THE THREE-MILE LIMIT FOR
FISHERY REGULATIONS.

Three miles insufficient for the regulation of the fisheries--Seal
fisheries--Behring Sea arbitration--Oyster, pearl-oyster, and coral
fisheries--Regulations for “floating” fish--Relation of trawl-fishing
to three-mile limit--Recent great extension of trawling--The effect
on the fishing-grounds--Official inquiries--English trawlers desire
an increased limit in North Sea--International conference at
London, 1890--Inquiry by select committee of House of Commons--They
recommend international extension of present limit for fishery
purposes--Immature Fish Bill--Its object--Parliamentary inquiry,
1900--They urge international arrangement for North Sea--Bill again
introduced--Inquiry by committee of House of Lords, 1904--They
recommend international agreement for North Sea--The impoverishment
of the fishing-grounds in the North Sea--Trawlers flock to foreign
coasts--Feeling among foreign fishermen--Legislation in various
countries regulating trawling beyond the three-mile limit--Norway,
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria--Ireland--Not restricted to
bays--Scotland--Fishery Acts--Firth of Clyde--Moray Firth--Act
of 1895 empowering a thirteen-mile limit--Intrusion of foreign
and pseudo-Norwegian trawlers into Moray Firth--Prosecutions and
convictions--Case of Peters _versus_ Olsen--Case of Mortensen
_versus_ Peters--Decision of the Scottish High Court of
Justiciary--Opinions of the judges--Intervention of Norwegian
Government--Release of offenders--Foreign Office decline to open
negotiations with foreign Powers--Debates in Parliament--Lord
Fitzmaurice on territorial limit and bays--Opinions of Lord
Halsbury, Lord Herschell, Lord Salisbury, Lord Chancellor
Loreburn--Declarations of Sir Edward Grey, Minister for Foreign
Affairs--Views of British Government--Previous action of Great
Britain in connection with extra-territorial fisheries--Recent
proceedings with foreign Powers regarding the three-mile limit--The
international fishery investigations--Need of an international
arrangement 693