THE INADEQUACY OF THE THREE-MILE LIMIT 737 



and biological conditions of the sea, of the life-history of fishes, 

 and of certain fishery questions, no report has yet appeared 

 dealing with the fundamental problem as to overfishing and 

 any remedies which may be required to safeguard the fish- 

 supply ; and it is doubtless such information that is referred 

 to by the Foreign Secretary as essential before Foreign Powers 

 can be approached. An opinion was, however, early expressed 

 as to the particular question of the Moray Firth. The Con- 

 ference held at Christiania in 1901, at which all the Powers 

 signatory to the North Sea Convention (with the exception of 

 France) were represented, passed a resolution to the effect that 

 " in distinct areas of the sea, as for example the Moray Firth, 

 in which any Government has undertaken scientific experiments 

 in the interest of the fisheries, and in which the success of the 

 experiments is being hindered by the operations of trawlers, it 

 is to be desired that measures be adopted for the removal of 

 such hindrances." l 



The second probable reason that nothing has yet been done 

 to arrive at an international understanding appears to be that 

 the representatives of the great trawling industry have changed 

 their minds within the last few years. Since foreign coasts have 

 been exploited with immediate financial success to the trawling 

 companies, their interest in the North Sea has diminished. 

 They fear that if the question of fishery regulations beyond the 

 ordinary three-mile limit is opened up with foreign Powers in 

 the interest of the North Sea fisheries, proposals may be made, 

 as a quid pro quo, by some of the other Powers for similar 

 regulations on their coasts; and it is evident from the state- 

 ments made in Parliament that this view has hitherto pre- 

 vailed. 2 One would have thought that a quid pro quo which 

 closed to trawling the great area off the Continental coast, 

 which English trawlers for more than fifteen years have been 

 vainly asking to be closed by international arrangement, would 

 be satisfactory to them. Or that a fishery limit of nine or ten 

 miles on the other side of the North Sea, or all around it, which 

 they thought some years ago to be the best remedy for the 



1 Reports of the British Delegates, &c., Parl. Papers, Cd. 1313, p. 72, 1903. 

 The countries represented were Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the 

 Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. 



2 Hansard, vol. 169, pp. 992, 996 ; vol. 170, p. 786 ; and llth Nov. 1908. 



3 A 



