THE INADEQUACY OF THE THREE-MILE LIMIT 699 



controversies affecting the territorial waters, at least in Europe, 

 have gathered. 1 It is therefore necessary to understand some- 

 thing about it, and how it is that it has given rise to demands 

 for the extension of the ordinary limits and for the closure of 

 large areas beyond these limits. It is the most effective and at 

 the same time the most destructive method of fishing ever made 

 use of. It differs from hook-and-line fishing, in which only a 

 few kinds of fish are taken at the same time, according to the 

 size of the hook and the kind of bait, and from gill-net or drift- 

 net fishing, which is adapted, according to the dimensions of 

 the mesh, to capture a particular fish, as herring or mackerel. 

 Trawling consists essentially in dragging along the bottom of 

 the sea a great bag of netting, which captures a large variety of 

 fishes, big and little ; and it may involve, at certain places and in 

 certain seasons, the destruction of immense quantities of edible 

 fishes too small to be marketable, and which are thrown back, 

 dead, into the sea. 2 It is a very old method, but until about a 

 century ago it was confined on the British coast to the mouth of 

 the Thames and neighbourhood and to certain localities in the 

 Channel, its headquarters being Barking and Brixham. Trawling 

 was then restricted to shallow water ; the boats were small and 

 the trawls were such as a man could carry on his shoulders. At 

 the close of the French war, Brixham trawlers began to migrate 

 eastwards, prospecting for new grounds, fixing their temporary 

 headquarters first at Dover, then at Ramsgate in 1818, and at 

 Harwich in 1828. Continuing their explorations, the Dutch 

 coast was visited about 1830 and the southern part of the 

 Dogger Bank a few years later, and in 1837 a great impetus 

 was given to trawling by the discovery of enormous quantities 

 of soles in the Great Silver Pit, south of the Dogger. Trawlers 

 flocked thither from all quarters ; the Brixham men fixed upon 

 Hull, first as their temporary, and then as their permanent home, 

 and from this time North Sea trawling was firmly established. 

 It was not until 1858, little more than half a century ago, that 

 trawlers began to be employed from Grimsby, which is now by 

 far the greatest fishing -port in the world. Gradually the 



1 Trawling, and, in particular, steam- trawling, is practically unknown in America ; 

 but in recent years French steam-trawlers have begun to frequent the Newfound- 

 land banks. 



2 Annual Reports, Fishery Board for Scotland ; Journal of the Marine Biological 

 Association, die. 



