260 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



places in territorial waters. This prohibition is unlikely to 

 be effected, since at the port of Lowestoft alone over 

 20,000 is put into circulation every spring through the 

 sale to the Dutch and French fishermen of young herrings, 

 as long-line bait for halibut and turbots. The Board of 

 Trade, as before stated, may, by 44 Viet. c. 1 1, prohibit the 

 use of beam-trawls wherever they are injurious to clam- 

 beds in territorial waters, and this constitutes almost the 

 only direct protection afforded spawning places of the 

 second class. 



Spawning beds, or the pisciculture plots originated or 

 continued by the permission of the Board of Trade, are the 

 direct result of enactments or a Crown Grant. For these 

 reasons they readily become the subject of such legislation 

 as can materially affect the relationship of the State with 

 fishermen. In the same way that weirs have in some 

 instances been permitted to individuals for the destruction 

 of fish on the coast or in estuaries, in certain similar places 

 plots have more recently been assigned for fish-culture and 

 the protection of spawn. The chief deep-sea oyster-beds 

 are those in the Channel and those off Grimsby, whilst 

 important oyster-beds within the territorial waters have 

 long been established off Portland, Falmouth, and Whit- 

 stable, and in the Solent and Milford Haven. 



In 1778 (18 Geo. III. c. 33) an Act was passed for the 

 better protection of fish in the Severn and Verniew. This 

 enactment is now a matter of historical interest, but so far 

 as it related to the estuaries of the rivers defined, it may 

 be here referred to as an early endeavour towards the 

 protection of spawning beds. At the commencement of 

 the present century the estuaries of the Teign and Plym 

 were similarly protected. The protection extended chiefly 

 to salmon ; for this reason its consideration may be dis- 



