Prince. — Territorial Waters 189 



of Appeal of England in the " Mortensen case. " The well known 

 Canadian Herring Commission, 1889, which published a splendid 

 report upon all phases of the industry, refer on p. 79, to the prohibi- 

 tion of trawling in the three-mile limit, and they say: "We 

 consider trawling, especially within the territorial limits, to be 

 exceedingly injurious to the herring fishery. It is established on 

 undoubted authority in Britain and Ireland that trawling scares 

 away the herring from the fishing grounds, drives them away from 

 the spawning grounds, and disturbs and destroys the spawn when 

 deposited. The salmon, halibut, lobster, and flatfish fisheries 

 generally, have been seriously injured, and in many cases 

 destroyed, by the operations of the trawlers. We, therefore, 

 consider that trawling and the use of all destructive seines and 

 traps, calculated to disturb the herring in any way and to destroy 

 large quantities of immature fish and spawn should be prohibited 

 within the three-mile limit, and that efforts should be made by the 

 Government to effect an international arrangement whereby 

 the trawling on the high seas should be regulated and restrained 

 when the herring schools are in close to the coasts so as not to 

 drive them away from the fishing or spawning grounds, or disturb 

 or destroy the spawn when deposited on banks outside the terri- 

 torial waters. " From a strictly scientific point of view the grounds 

 stated by this Commission, for the action suggested, are not 

 altogether well-founded, but it must be admitted that there is 

 great force in the view that excessive fishing operations within 

 short distances of the shore must injure all fisheries. 



The extension of the territorial limits would enable better 

 supervision to be carried out, at greater distances from shore, and 

 in 1915, the Canadian Government authorized by Order in Council 

 a prohibition of trawling operations within a distance as great as 

 twelve miles. Owing to war conditions, enforcement was post- 

 poned. There is no reason, however, why such a special method 

 of fishing as trawling only should be curtailed or controlled within 

 that distance, but that all methods of fishing should be under wise 

 regulation within a distance much greater than the present 

 territorial limits off the shores referred to. 



Lastly, in order that some practical results may be possible, 

 I have, as urged by some leading members of the American Fish- 



