638 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



the limits for exclusive fishery, both in the convention with 

 France in 1839 and with the other North Sea Powers in 1882, 

 were fixed as it were incidentally. 



The duration of the convention was to be for five years from 

 the date at which it came into operation, unless one year's 

 notice to terminate it were given by any of the contracting 

 Powers; and it was to continue in force from year to year 

 subject to similar notice. That none of the signatory Powers 

 have withdrawn from the convention is the best proof of its 

 general utility. From the number and influential position of 

 these states, and from the character of the sea to which it 

 applies, one of the most productive in the world, this conven- 

 tion is an international document of high importance to the sea 

 fisheries, and deserves careful consideration. The first article 

 declares that the provisions shall apply to the subjects of the 

 high -contracting parties, the object being "to regulate the 

 police of the fisheries in the North Sea outside territorial 

 waters " ; and the limits of the North Sea were carefully defined. 1 

 The provisions of the convention relate to the registration, 

 lettering, and numbering of boats, the operations of fishermen 

 pursuing different methods of fishing at the same place at the 

 same time, the malicious use of instruments for cutting nets, 

 the salvage of derelict fishing-gear, and the superintendence by 

 cruisers. It was put in force in this country in 1883 by an Act 

 of Parliament, 2 which also extended its application, so far as 

 British sea-fishing boats were concerned, to the whole of the 

 seas around the British Islands, whether within or without the 



1 The boundaries specified are, on the north, the parallel of the 61st degree of 

 latitude ; on the east and south, the coast of Norway between the above parallel and 

 LindesniBs Lighthouse, a straight line thence across the Skagerrack to Hantsholm 

 Lighthouse in Denmark, the coasts of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, 

 Belgium, and France, as far as Cape Gris Nez Lighthouse ; on the west, a straight 

 line from Gris Nez Lighthouse to the easternmost lighthouse at the North Foreland 

 in Kent, the eastern coasts of England and Scotland, a line from Duncansby Head 

 in Caithness to the southern point of South Ronaldsha in the Orkneys, the eastern 

 coasts of the Orkney Islands, a straight line from North Ronaldsha Lighthouse to 

 Sumburgh Head Lighthouse in the Shetland Islands, the eastern coasts of these 

 islands, and the meridian of the North Unst Lighthouse as far as the parallel of 

 the 61st degree of latitude. The Dutch proposed the 60th degree of latitude as 

 the northern limit, and the British the 62nd degree. 



2 46 & 47 Viet., c. 22. An Act to carry into effect an International Convention 

 concerning the Fisheries in the North Sea, and to amend the laws relating to British 

 Sea Fisheries. 



