720 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



Canty re, in the County of Argyll " that is to say, the Firth of 

 Clyde. In this Act, it will be noted, nothing is said about bays, 

 save in this schedule, and an examination of the charts shows 

 that the waters specified in the schedule, twenty-five in number, 

 would all, with a single exception, be included in the limits of 

 exclusive fishing as defined in the North Sea Convention. 

 Presumably the bays on the coast of Scotland which are not 

 mentioned in the schedule do not come under the provisions of 

 this Act beyond the distance of three miles from low-water 

 mark on their shores. The exception referred to is the Firth 

 of Clyde (fig. 29), where the line of closure is about twenty-eight 

 miles in length, within which trawling was directly prohibited 

 by the Act. The area of water outside the ordinary limits of 

 the conventions which is thus embraced amounts to about 

 380 square (geographical) miles. 



Under the section referring to the Moray Firth, a byelaw was 

 passed in 1890 giving effect to its provisions within a straight 

 line drawn from the Ord of Caithness to Craighead near Buckie, 

 the extent of water enclosed, beyond the ordinary limits, being 

 about 310 square miles. This was replaced by another byelaw 

 in 1892, in which the line of closure to trawling was from 

 Duncansby Head to Rattray Head, a distance of about 73 

 geographical miles, the area of sea enclosed between it and the 

 ordinary limits amounting to approximately 1480 square 

 (geographical) miles (fig. 30). It is this byelaw that has of 

 late given rise to discussion in relation to the operations of 

 foreign trawlers within the Moray Firth, as is explained below. 



In 1895 another Bill was introduced into the House of Lords 

 by the Lord Privy Seal (Lord Tweedmouth), with the object, 

 among other things, of extending a similar jurisdiction over 

 the waters washing the east coast of Scotland. The line at 

 first chosen in this case was a very long one, running along 

 the open coast from Rattray Head to the Fame Islands, a 

 distance of about 120 miles, and passing a little over thirty 

 miles east of Fife Ness. 1 It was proposed later to give power 



1 "11. (1) The Fishery Board may, by byelaw or byelaws, direct that the 

 methods of fishing known as beam trawling and otter trawling shall not be used 

 within a line drawn from Rattray Point, in Aberdeenshire, to the Fame Islands, in 

 Northumberland, in any area or areas to be denned in such byelaw, and may from 

 time to time make, alter, and revoke byelaws for the purposes of this section." 



