THE FISHERIES ON THE HIGH SEAS 393 



Man's eagerness has so nearly exhausted the easily exploited resources 

 that fostering care is essential to the best development and use of the 

 sea bottom. Left to the chance of nature and subject to despoilment by 

 every one without hindrance, these areas would remain barren wastes. 

 Law and government are for the benefit of humanity, not to foster 

 waste. The aim of international law is the welfare and happiness of 

 the general society of mankind, and this would not be promoted by a 

 policy which would keep the sea bottoms forever unproductive. The 

 reason for the freedom of the high seas is the freedom of intercourse 

 and commerce between the states, the seas being the common highway; 

 and a recognition of the occupancy by an individual nation of so much 

 of the sea bottom as it may actually improve and develop does not im- 

 pair the perfect freedom of navigation by vessels of all nations, as this 

 occupancy is subordinate to the right of navigation and fishery and 

 can not be exercised in derogation thereof. 



Necessarily in the recognition of this extension of jurisdiction, the 

 interests of the various states must be carefully guarded, and especially 

 of those near the areas to be exploited. Within general limits, the right 

 of exploitation and development must be reserved to the nation within 

 whose sphere of influence the particular area is situated, for it would 

 be manifestly unjust, indeed extremely unwise, to establish a principle 

 by which a nation could appropriate to itself a resource off the shores of 

 a less enterprising country. The privilege of exploiting the sea bot- 

 tom in the whole of the Gulf of California, for instance, should un- 

 doubtedly rest with the Mexican people; Ceylon and British India 

 should have control of that in the Gulf of Manar, and the riparian 

 states should possess those in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. 



However we may view the protective needs of the migratory and the 

 bottom fishes, the situation is quite different with respect to the great 

 marine vertebrates, the seals, walrus, manatees, sea otters and many 

 species of whales. These animals are approaching practical exhaus- 

 tion with great rapidity, and prompt action seems necessary if they 

 are to be preserved from extinction. 



This is not the language of exaggeration. Under the influence of the 

 bounty of $25 which industrial use offers for the life of a fur seal, $300 

 for a sea otter and $8,000 for an arctic whale, these animals are pass- 

 ing away far more rapidly than is generally realized, the entire annual 

 product of sea otters throughout the world now approximating only 

 200 and of arctic whales less than 100 each year. The timid whalebone 

 whales have been swept from the navigable seas and are nowhere to be 

 found except in the most remote ice fields of the frigid zones. 



The walrus are almost exterminated in the seas north of Europe; 

 and where they were formerly so plentiful in Bering Sea, they are to be 



VOL. LXXVI. — 27. 



