458 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



The uncertain nature of the fish renders all calculations re- 

 specting future catches virtually impossible ; hence, it is the 

 more difficult to agree upon regulations for future seasons to 

 govern the mackerel fisheries. 



When the mackerel first appear in the early summer months 

 along the New England coasts, the fleet of American fisher- 

 men set out in pursuit, following the school of fish into the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they remain throughout the sum- 

 mer. As the mackerel frequent shallow water, the American 

 fishermen, having no right to do so, are often tempted to 

 approach the shore and carry on their operations within the 

 forbidden territorial waters of Canada. This has been even 

 recently one of the principal grievances of the Canadian 

 fishermen. The method employed by Americans in the 

 mackerel fishery is the "purse seine." This mode of fish- 

 ing is attended with many difficulties and dangers in the 

 shallow waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where violent 

 squalls are frequent, yet as a method of capturing fish it is 

 most effective. The Canadians object to the use of the purse 

 seine, even when employed outside the three-mile limit of 

 their jurisdictional waters, for, they maintain, it " vexes " the 

 fish, interferes with their breeding, and tends to drive them 

 away altogether from the Gulf. For this reason they hold 

 on the score of contra bonos mares that the Americans 

 have no right to use this kind of seine in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence. In asserting their right to fish as they choose upon 

 the high seas, the attitude of American and Canadian fisher- 

 men is the exact reverse of the positions assumed by their 

 respective governments in relation to pelagic sealing in Ber- 

 ing Sea. The most serious difficulties of the fishery ques- 

 tion to-day are connected with the rights and privileges of 

 the American mackerel fleet. 



., The herring fisheries of the United States, until within 

 recent years, have occupied a relatively subordinate place. 

 In northern Europe this industry is carried on with great 

 vigor, the annual yield sometimes reaching the extraordinary 

 number of 2,500,000,000 fish. The herring on the west side 

 of the Atlantic have their range within the limits of th< 



