142 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
In the celebrated Franconia case,* Chief Justice Cockburn, of England, 
noted that a portion of the bed of the sea, where it could be physically, per- 
manently occupied, might be subject to occupation in the same way as unoccu- 
pied territory. And as said by Vattel, the most popular and in many respects 
the most just of the writers on the law of nations: ‘‘ Qui doutera que les pécheries 
de Bahrein et de Ceylon ne puissent legitimement tomber en propriété?’’? 
This view is founded not only on justice but likewise on necessity. 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. 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 occu- 
pancy by an individual nation of so much of the sea bottom as it may actually 
improve and develop does not impair the perfect freedom of navigation by 
vessels of all nations, as this occupancy is subordinate to the right of navigation 
and can not be exercised in derogation thereof. 
Necessarily in the recognition of this jurisdiction the interests of the 
various states should 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 bottom in the whole of the Gulf of California, for instance, 
should undoubtedly 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. 
PRESERVATION OF THE FISHERIES ON THE HIGH SEAS. 
The fisheries prosecuted on the high seas are of vast economic importance; 
they furnish a livelihood to a large number of persons, and yield food products 
of great value in the sustenance of the human race. Unlike the mineral and 
the agricultural resources, this wealth can not be appropriated and conserved by 
individual enterprise, but must in a very large measure be maintained for the 
use of the people in common. ‘Thus 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. 
@ Queen v. Keyn, L. R. 2 Excheq. Div., 63 (Nov. 11 and 13, 1876). 
b Vattel, Le Droit des Gens, t. 1, ch. 23, sec. 28. 
