412 INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR THE 



gear, the one which shot last being the responsible 

 one. 



. The different classes of vessels often want to work 

 the same ground, as where herrings are there are 

 generally bottom fish, especially soles, when the herrings 

 are spawning, as they are greedy fish for herring spawn 

 as food. It has been suggested that the sea should 

 be mapped into districts, but the difficulty would be to 

 prove in cases of claims for damages (which generally 

 occur at night) as to which vessel was in her right district. 

 And again, it is well known that during some seasons the 

 drift fish will lie near the coast, at others many miles have 

 to be traversed before the shoals of fish are reached, so 

 that practically it would be necessary to map off the greater 

 part of the sea for the drifters during the greater part of 

 the year, which would not be practicable. If trawlers are 

 to be compelled to give way to drifters, even though they 

 are fishing before the drifter or longliner arrives, surely 

 some sort of compensation ought to be recoverable by a 

 trawler from a drifter or longliner which compels him to 

 haul his gear and lose his time. Again, in Article 20 it 

 is ordered that, " when nets belonging to different fishermen 

 get foul of each other they shall not be cut without the 

 consent of both parties. All responsibility shall cease, if 

 the impossibility of disengaging the nets by any other 

 means is proved." Therefore, if a trawler, who shot first, 

 gets entangled with a drifter, the trawler will not break the 

 law any how, if he cuts the drifter's warp, as this is not 

 mentioned in the article ; and having done this the net rope 

 would break and the net tear through, and the trawler 

 would get clear, and could in this case plead that the loss 

 sustained by the drifter did not result from his fault under 

 Article 19, and that the nets could not be disengaged by 



