THE INADEQUACY OF THE THREE-MILE LIMIT 701 



and 918 deep-sea sailing smacks. 1 These figures, however, 

 convey but little impression of the real increase in the catching 

 power. It has been computed, both by practical men and by 

 scientific experts, that the modern steam otter-trawler is approx- 

 imately eight times more effective in catching fish than was one 

 of the large sailing smacks of a generation ago, 2 and thus the 

 British deep-sea trawling fleet in 1907 was equal to about 13,790 

 of the older sailing smacks. But in addition to these there are 

 the foreign steam -trawlers which fish on the same grounds, 

 for many other countries have followed the English example 

 in developing deep-sea trawling. The aggregate number of 

 such vessels at the end of 1907 was about 634, of which 224 

 were French, 239 German, and 81 Dutch; 3 and they would 

 represent 5072 sailing smacks, so that the total trawling fleet 

 of Western Europe was then equal to about 18,862 of the 

 sailing trawlers of twenty or thirty years ago, the sailing 

 trawlers in use on the Continent being left out of account. 

 It has been calculated that the area of the sea-bottom which 

 is swept each day by the nets of this great fleet is equal to 

 about 2000 square miles. 



Now, this extraordinary extension of trawl-fishing in recent 

 times bears upon the question of territorial waters in two ways. 

 One relates to the impoverishment of the older fishing-grounds 

 near the coast and in the North Sea. The other relates to the 

 incursion of steam-trawlers on foreign coasts as affecting the 

 fishing of the inhabitants of such coasts. 



With regard to the first, there have been many inquiries 

 made by Royal Commissions and Parliamentary Committees, 

 as well as by fishery departments and experts, which show 

 that the excessive fishing has depleted the older banks. In the 

 first of these inquiries, which began in 1863, when there were 

 only from 650 to 700 smacks trawling in the North Sea (and 

 then only in a part of it), the reporters expressed their belief 



1 For the earlier periods the statistics are incomplete. In 1863 the number of 

 sailing trawlers was 955, of which 650 to 700 fished in the North Sea, 530 belonging 

 to Ramsgate, Yarmouth, Grimsby, and Hull ; in 1883 the aggregate was estimated 

 at 3000, some being large vessels of ninety tons ; in 1889 there were 230 steamers 

 and 2323 smacks ; in 1899 the steamers numbered 1186 and the smacks 1637. 



2 Garstang, The Impoverishment of the Sea, Journal Marine Bid. Assoc., 

 vol. vii. p. 47, 1900. 



3 Return of the Number of Steam Trawlers registered at Ports in the States of 

 Western Europe in the Year 1907, Parl. Papers, Cd. 4236, 1908. 



