636 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



the Skagerrack, the fisheries of which, it was stated by the 

 president, were not international, but were " essentially within 

 the jurisdiction of the States to which the shores belong." 

 The greater part of the Zuiderzee, however, would have been 

 excluded by the definition of bays in the convention, and the 

 rest of it by the inclusion of " banks " ; but the Skagerrack, on 

 the other hand, is nowhere less than sixty geographical miles 

 from shore to shore. Neither Norway nor Denmark has 

 asserted since the convention exclusive jurisdiction in its 

 moiety of these waters, where, in point of fact, both English 

 and German vessels now carry on an extensive fishing. 1 



Some other points of interest were raised during the delibera- 

 tions of this important conference. It was asked by the presi- 

 dent : What would be the fate of the convention during war, 

 in which one or two of the Governments joining in it should 

 be belligerents ? Would the fishery cruisers of the Powers 

 concerned merely retire from the North Sea and leave fisher- 

 men of their nationality without protection or help ? He 

 recommended that the conference should adopt the principle 

 that fishing - boats, bond fide engaged in fishing, should be 

 declared neutral. This was to revive a subject that had 

 earlier, especially during the time of Napoleon I., caused much 

 discussion, and which was remote from the object of the 

 convention ; and the proposal, though sympathetically received 

 by the French delegates, was not supported by any of the 

 Governments. A proposal of another kind was made by 

 the German delegate. He thought it was necessary that 

 restrictive measures should be enforced to prevent the destruc- 

 tion of the fry of fish and the taking of small fish; for 

 example, by forbidding trawling within a certain distance 

 of the shore, so as to provide a shelter for the free develop- 

 ment of fish, and by regulating the construction of trawl- 

 nets. The British and French delegates were opposed to 

 any system of restriction, relying on the results of the 

 inquiry which had been then recently made by Messrs 

 Buckland and Walpole, 2 and on the part of France the 



1 Vide Fiskeri-Seretning for Finansaaret, 1907-1908, p. 178. Kjobenhavn, 1908. 



2 Report on the Sea Fisheries of England and Wales, 1879. The British delegate 

 laid stress on one of the conclusions reached by Mr Buckland, to the effect that 

 " nothing that man has done, and nothing that man can do, can affect the supply 



