THE FISHERIES ON THE HIGH SEAS 389 



PRESERVATION OF THE FISHERIES ON THE HIGH SEAS 



By CHARLES HUGH STEVENSON, LL.M., D.C.L. 



DETROIT, MICH. 



THE fishery resources on the high seas can not be regulated and 

 conserved by municipal or national laws, and the governments 

 of the world are in a just sense the trustees for the management of this 

 great wealth, this common field, where all reap and none sow, where all 

 harvest and none plant. 



It is to the common interest of all nations to prevent indiscriminate 

 depletion of these resources. Useless destruction is a crime against 

 posterity. Doubtless a century hence no policy of our great president 

 will add more largely to his fame than his efforts toward preserving 

 the natural resources, and no branch of these calls for more prompt 

 international consideration than the resources of the high seas. 



Upon the subject of the preservation of these resources so that their 

 yield may continue undiminished, so much is appropriate to be said 

 that one is lost in the abundance of it. The animal and vegetable 

 products of the seas differ almost as widely in their characteristics and 

 needs as those on land, and equally diversified and complicated are the 

 problems concerning the most favorable conditions of their production 

 and development. 



Fortunately, the problem of sewage pollution, doubtless the greatest 

 destructive factor in the inland and the coastal fisheries, has little or 

 no existence in a consideration of the resources of the areas under 

 consideration. 



From the standpoint of protective needs, the fishery products of the 

 high seas may be roughly divided into four general classes, viz.: (1) 

 the migratory species, such as herring, mackerel, bluefish, etc.; (2) the 

 bottom or ground species, such as cod, haddock, flounder and flatfish, 

 which are less migratory in their habits and remain in the same general 

 locality; (3) those products which are fixed to the bottom and are to 

 some extent susceptible of ownership, as sponges, pearl oysters, etc.; 

 and (4) the aquatic mammals. 



As regards the migratory fishes, there is an increasing belief that 

 serious impairment of these species is beyond our present demands on 

 them, and that the destruction effected by man is but child's play com- 

 pared with nature's work in that direction. Many states from time to 

 time have enacted restrictive legislation with a view to preserving them, 

 but estimation of the beneficial effect of these regulations is generally 

 discredited. 



