614 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



the limits assigned in Article I. of this Convention, for the French 

 oyster fishery. 



It is equally agreed, that the distance of three miles fixed as the 

 general limit for the exclusive right of fishery upon the coasts of 

 the two countries shall, with respect to bays, the mouths of which 

 do not exceed ten miles in width, be measured from a straight line 

 drawn from headland to headland." 



The next article defined the miles to be geographical miles, 

 of which sixty make a degree of latitude ; and it was also 

 provided that with a view to prevent the collisions which 

 from time to time took place "on the seas lying between 

 the coasts of Great Britain and of France," between the 

 trawlers and the line and long -net fishermen of the two 

 countries, a mixed commission should be appointed to prepare 

 a set of regulations for the guidance of the fishermen in the 

 seas above mentioned. The code of regulations so arranged 

 was confirmed by the respective Governments' in June 1843, 

 and was in this country embodied in an Act of Parliament. 

 They embraced a large number of subjects, many of them 

 beyond what was contemplated in the convention. Besides 

 what may be termed police regulations, such as the number- 

 ing and lettering of fishing-boats, there were others defining 

 and restricting the fishing apparatus to be employed; 1 and 

 all this machinery of regulation was to be applied to British 

 and French fishermen pursuing their industry in the extra- 

 territorial waters. 



This convention was the first to establish by an inter- 

 national agreement the three-mile limit as the boundary 

 of exclusive fishing on the British coasts, so far as French 

 fishermen were concerned. In view of the numerous conflicts 

 and disputes, it was clearly of importance that some limit 



1 6 & 7 Viet., cap. 79. "An Act to carry into Effect the Convention between 

 Her Majesty and the King of the French concerning the Fisheries in the Seas 

 between the British Islands and France," 22ud August 1843. The mesh of trawl- 

 nets, the length of the trawl-beam, the weight of the trawl-irons and of the ground- 

 rope, the mesh of herring, mackerel, "bratt," and trammel nets, were in no case to 

 be over or under a specified standard. A series of detailed regulations for oyster- 

 fishing was also made, including a close-time and a minimum size. This Act was 

 repealed by the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868 (the Convention Act), 31 & 32 Viet., c. 45, 

 but it was revived by Parliament in 1877 (40 & 41 Viet., c. 42), the Convention of 

 1867 not having been ratified by France. 



