THE INADEQUACY OF THE THREE-MILE LIMIT 695 



viz., that the action of man, if unrestrained, would lead to their 

 destruction and economic extinction. They are those for 

 marine mammals, as seals and cetaceans, and for certain shell- 

 fishes and coral. A considerable number of countries have 

 legislated for the preservation of seals, and some of the enact- 

 ments at least apply beyond the ordinary limits. Examples 

 may be found in the Canadian statute of 1886, 1 which refers 

 also to whales and porpoises; the Russian law dealing with 

 the sealing industry in the White Sea; the Norwegian law 

 -fixing a close-time for whales in the Varangerfjord ; and the 

 concurrent international legislation of Great Britain, Sweden, 

 Norway, Russia, Germany, and Holland concerning the Jan 

 Mayen seal fishery in the Atlantic east of Greenland.' 2 A 

 recent instance is afforded by the regulations which were 

 prescribed for British and American citizens and subjects by 

 the Tribunal of Arbitration for the purpose of protecting and 

 preserving the fur-seal in Behring Sea. By these regulations 

 the killing, capture, or pursuit of this animal was forbidden 

 within a zone of sixty geographical miles around the Pribilov 

 Islands, comprising about 15,000 square miles of sea; a close- 

 time was fixed between 1st May and 31st July on the high sea 

 within an immense area viz., north of 35 degrees North 

 latitude and eastwards of 180 degrees West longitude; only 

 specially licensed sailing vessels, with canoes or undecked boats 

 propelled by paddles, oars, or sails, were at liberty to carry on 

 fur-sealing operations where and when the fishing was allowed ; 

 the use of nets, firearms, and explosives was forbidden, except 

 shot-guns outside of Behring Sea, and some minor conditions 

 were laid down. 3 



Another instance is the agreements entered into between 

 Russia on the one hand and Great Britain and the United States 



1 49 Viet., c. 95. 



2 38 Viet., c. 18 ; Order in Council, 28th November 1876. 



3 Award of the Tribunal of Arbitration, p. 23. Declarations made by the Tribunal 

 of Arbitration, 1893. As the Behring Sea case has been often referred to in recent 

 controversies about the right of fishing, as having affirmed the three-mile limit as 

 the true international boundary of the territorial sea, the facts may be briefly 

 recalled. In 1867 the United States purchased from Russia the territory of Alaska 

 with its dependent islands, &c. , and an American company, very powerful finan- 

 cially and politically, was formed in 1870, which obtained a lease of the Pribilov 

 Islands in order to engage in the fur-seal industry. Under the Act of Congress of 

 1870 which enabled this to be done, it was made unlawful to kill any seals upon 

 the islands, "or in the waters adjacent thereto," except during certain specified 



