THE INADEQUACY OF THE THREE-MILE LIMIT 721 



to prohibit trawling in any area or areas within eighteen 

 miles of the coast. 1 In the Act as passed the distance was 

 reduced to thirteen miles from the coast in areas under the 

 jurisdiction of the Crown, and no area was to be so regarded 

 unless the powers conferred had been accepted as binding 

 upon their own subjects with respect to such area by all the 

 states who were parties to the North Sea Convention. 2 This 

 section of the Act has remained inoperative, and no byelaws 

 have been made under it ; and there appears to be no evi- 

 .dence as to whether the views of other Powers have been 

 obtained. 



In the Moray Firth, closed to trawling by the byelaw above 

 referred to, foreign trawlers began to make their appearance 

 first of all in 1895, when a Danish vessel came. Two years 

 . later it returned, and a German trawler also, which was pre- 

 vented from landing its fish at Aberdeen, an act of the Crown, 

 which was tested by a case in the Court of Session and upheld 

 by it. In 1898 foreign trawlers appeared in the Firth in 

 considerable numbers, and, it was reported, carried on their 

 operations in such a reckless manner as to involve a great deal 

 of damage to the gear of the net and line fishermen. 3 These 

 vessels appear to have been mainly Danish, but there were a 

 few Belgian, Dutch, and German, and they came for the most 

 part intermittently and for brief periods, some of them appear- 



1 A Sill [as amended in Committee] intituled An Act for the better Regulation of 

 Scottish Sea Fisheries (52), s. 10, February 1895. 



2 Sea Fisheries Regulation (Scotland) Act, 1895, 58 & 59 Viet., c. 42. Section 

 10. (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 in any area 

 or areas under the jurisdiction of Her Majesty, within thirteen miles of the Scottish 

 coast, to be defined in such byelaw, and may from time to time make, alter, and re- 

 voke byelaws for the purposes of this section. Provided that the powers conferred 

 in this section shall not be exercised in respect to any areas under Her Majesty's 

 jurisdiction lying opposite to any part of the coasts of England, Ireland, or the 

 Isle of Man, within thirteen miles thereof." (2) provided for a local inquiry to be 

 held. (3) " Provided that no area of sea within the said limit of thirteen miles 

 shall be deemed to be under the jurisdiction of Her Majesty for the purposes of 

 this section unless the powers conferred thereby shall have been accepted as binding 

 upon their own subjects with respect to such area by all the States signatories of 

 the North Sea Convention, 1882." 



3 Eighteenth Ann. Rep. Fishery Board for Scotland, Part I., p. xxxii. The 

 information relating to this part of the subject is taken mostly either from the 

 Annual Reports of the Scottish Fishery Board or from Hansard's Parliamentary 

 Debates. 



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