698 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 





by Italian and French laws beyond the ordinary three-mile 

 limit. 



Even in regard to the class of fisheries for what is termed 

 "floating" fish that is to say, the ordinary fisheries for sea 

 fishes, carried on usually by nets and lines there are a number 

 of enactments conferring jurisdiction, or which have conferred 

 jurisdiction, beyond the distance of three miles from shore. 

 Old English and British Acts, previously referred to (p. 608), 

 fixed limits of four-and-a-half and five miles from the coast, 

 within which distance the use of certain apparatus, as drag- 

 nets and trawls, was prohibited. In the Herring Fishery Act 

 of 1808, which provided for the appointment of commissioners 

 for the herring fishery, and for the regulation of the fishery 

 and the curing of herrings, jurisdiction was extended over " all 

 persons " engaged in catching, curing, and dealing in fish in all 

 the lochs, bays, and arms of the sea, and also within ten miles 

 of the coasts. 1 At the Isle of Man an Act of Tynwald pro- 

 hibited herring-fishing at a certain season within nine miles 

 of the shore, 2 and other instances might be given where 

 municipal Acts extended jurisdiction beyond the ordinary 

 three-mile limit for similar purposes. 



It is, however, in connection with the great development of 

 trawl-fishing from steamers in recent years, that the question 

 of the inadequacy of the ordinary three-mile limit for the pre- 

 servation and regulation of fisheries has been brought to the 

 front, and it is around this method of fishing that most of the 



1 An Act for the further Encouragement and better Regulation of the British 

 White Herring Fishery, 48 Geo. III., c. 110, s. 60, 46. Section 60 : "And whereas 

 it may be useful to provide a jurisdiction for preserving order and settling disputes 

 among persons carrying on the fishery for herrings on the coast and in the lakes 

 of Scotland ; be it therefore enacted, That the jurisdiction of the sheriffs and 

 Stewarts depute of Scotland, and their substitutes, shall be extended over all 

 persons engaged in catching, curing, and dealing in fish in all the lochs, bays, and 

 arms of the sea within their respective counties and stewartries, and also within ten 

 miles of the coasts of their said counties and stewartries, and that in as full and 

 ample a manner as the same is exercised over the inhabitants of these counties and 

 stewartries ; and if any loch, bay, or arm of the sea shall adjoin to two or more 

 counties or stewartries, or any part of the sea shall be within ten miles of the 

 coasts of two or more counties or stewartries, the sheriffs and Stewarts of the said 

 counties shall have and exercise a concurrent jurisdiction over such persons as 

 aforesaid, in any such loch, bay, or arm of the sea which shall be in or opposite to 

 their respective counties and stewartries, or any part of the sea within the aforesaid 

 distance of the coast thereof." 



2 Report of Commission on Sea Fisheries, 1863, p. Ixvi. 



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