ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 567 



fish as the knowledge of the workl at the present day knows to return 

 to their h)cal habitation for tlie purpose of breeding', of wliich tlie 

 annual increase can be taken and of which the same selection can 

 be made as is purported to be made with seals with this additional 

 incident, that they are actually bred artificially to increase the stock, 

 my learned friend, Mr. Carter, endeavoured to get rid of that difficulty 

 (a difficulty which, we submit, is bound up with and is one of the vices 

 of his argument) by siiying" the distinction in the case of fish is that 

 they are inexhaustible. Is that the present condition of knowledge 

 either of the United States, or of Great Britain, or of any other Nation ? 

 This Tribunal is asked to recognize as a matter of international law 

 a pro])erty in wild animals — to recognize a right of protection, — that 

 the animals are to be considered to belong- to the United States all 

 over the sea"? Tlie argument is weak indeed if my learned friend 

 thinks he can distingnish the case of fish on the ground of the inex- 

 haustibility being a sufficient answer. Wliat has been happening? 

 May I remind you, and I have no doubt you have some knowledge of it 

 (certainly some members of the Tribunal have) the United States, 

 France, Canada, and Great Britain in various parts of the world have 

 had to consider the exhaustion of fisheries and fishing banks, and they 

 are re-stocking them by artificial means, and further it has come out in 

 that examination that practically all of these fish, certainly the prin- 

 cipal fish, can be identified as coming from a particular place and are 

 of such a character even that the fish can be identified -as having been 

 bred at a ])articular jilace and are returning to it. 



It would be very interesting to go into this, Mr. President, if it were 

 closer to this case; but I do not know if this Tribunal knows that 

 Mr. Neilsen one of the most experienced inspectors of fisheries in Nor- 

 way was sent to the other side of the Atlantic to advise the Newfound- 

 land Fisheries in this nuitter, and Professor Baird — I do not know 

 whether he still lives — probably the most eminent naturalist as to fish- 

 eries in the United States had advocated the re-stocking of the deep 

 sea fisheries and had advised that other nations should commence 

 re-stocking and artiftcially hatching in order to replenish the races of 

 fish then becoming exhausted, and that all these gentlemen from their 

 researches in these matters. Professor Baird among the number, 

 Mr. Neilsen among the number, have found that each of the various 

 species of cod have their own local habitat and i;au be readily and 

 easily distinguished. St. George's fish are known from any other kind 

 of cod caught on the Banks. Cape St. Mary's cod are distinguished 

 from any other kind of cod in Newfoundland; and a Trinity Bay fish 

 is known from a Placentia fish. It would interest this Tribunal upon 

 the question of the principle of law attempted to be pressed u])on it; 

 if there is any reason or logic in it, I conld show that it would have 

 such a far-reaching effect that the principle applied to this particular 

 case would lead nations to claim that each individual animal or fish 

 that could be identified, or that could be shown to have bred and shown 

 to return to its own breeding home, was to be the property of the par- 

 ticular nation that could prove it came there to breed, and they had 

 there the power of destroying the whole of them at once or allowing a 

 certain number to go free. Perhaps also. Sir, yon know, and it may 

 be interesting to the Tribunal I should menticm that this has been 

 the subject of a very learned discussion in France with reference to the 

 stocking of exhausted fisheries on the French coasts. Therefore, my 

 learned friends will forgive me for saying that I think it is impossible 

 to draw the distinction they have attempted to draw between seals 

 and fish on the ground, as they suggest, that in one case the animals 



