610 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



thyologist of repute, that the fish spawned in the shallow 

 water near the shore, an erroneous opinion that has prevailed 

 almost to the present day, but which was shown to be incorrect 

 by the observations made by the Fishery Board for Scotland l 

 and others. 



It was deemed to be of great importance that the breeding 

 fish, and the eggs which they were supposed to deposit near 

 the shore, should be protected from alleged injurious modes 

 of fishing; and the Committee recommended statutory enact- 

 ments to establish close - times, and to prohibit the use of 

 trawl or drag nets within a league from the shore or in 

 water less than ten fathoms in depth. They inquired care- 

 fully as to the limit which would be sufficient for this purpose. 

 Most of the fishermen were of opinion that the distance of 

 one league would be sufficient to include the "breeding- 

 grounds," and bring them under the protection of the law; 

 but they held that the distance should be measured not from 

 the shore, following its sinuosities, but from a straight line 

 drawn from one headland to another, an opinion with which 

 the Committee concurred. 



No immediate action was taken by the Government to 

 establish a definite boundary for exclusive fishing, and peti- 

 tions and memorials continued to pour in from various parts 



1 Mr Cornish, quoting from his MS. treatise on zoology, said : " It is generally 

 supposed that all sea fish, the cetaceous (sic) and cartilaginous excepted, deposit 

 their ova in sand-banks, in creeks, bays, and shallow water near the shores, because 

 it is imagined that a certain, though a small, degree of the sun's action on the water 

 and atmosphere is necessary to bring such ova to maturity. This we know to be 

 the case with the salmon species, which always ascend to the shallow parts of rivers 

 for that purpose, and never lay their eggs in deep water, and therefore we infer 

 that the same influence prevails over the sea fish : this cannot, however, be proved, 

 and rests mainly on opinion and probable conjecture, founded on such facts as we 

 are acquainted with." It may be said that a Select Committee of the House of 

 Commons, appointed in 1817 to inquire into the condition of the fisheries on the 

 south coast of Devon, strongly recommended Parliamentary action for the protec- 

 tion of the fisheries, founding on the same erroneous assumption that the fishes 

 spawned near the shore. A Bill was accordingly introduced in the session of 1819, 

 and again in 1822, for the appointment of conservators or overseers of the bays, 

 creeks, and arms of the sea, to supervise regulations for the preservation of the fish 

 coming there to spawn, and of their brood and fry, and applying to a distance of 

 one and a half leagues from the shore ; but it did not pass the Lords. Rep. Select 

 Com. on the State and Condition of the Fisheries on the South Coast of Devon, 1817 ; 

 Parl. Bills, xxii. 587, 601. Eighth Ann. Rep. Fishery Board for Scotland, Part 

 III., pp. 13, 258 (1890) ; Tenth, ibid., pp. 19, 235; Eleventh, ibid., p. 13. 



