MODERN PRACTICE 657 



appears that Russia also claims the White Sea as a mare 

 clausum, or mer fermAe, within a line between Cape Kanin 

 (Kanin Nos) and Cape Sviatoi (Sviatoi Nos), where it is about 

 eighty geographical miles in width. 1 If this claim is now 

 made by Russia, it would probably be difficult for her to make 

 it good before an international tribunal, did such exist. For 

 not only is the mouth of the width stated, but the area in- 

 cluded is nearly 30,000 square geographical miles, only about 

 twenty per cent of which is within the ordinary three-mile 

 limit. Until lately the only foreigners who fished in the 

 neighbourhood of the White Sea were Norwegians, but in each 

 summer since 1905 both English and German steam-trawlers 

 have carried on an important fishery in the vicinity of Cape 

 Kanin, but not within the White Sea itself, where the rocky 

 nature of the bottom is said to prevent this method of fishing. 2 

 In France, fishing in the sea beyond three miles from low- 

 water mark was declared by a decree of 10th May 1862 to be 

 free all the year round, except for oysters ; but certain fisheries 

 were allowed to be temporarily suspended beyond the three- 

 mile limit, if it was found necessary for the preservation of 

 the bed of the sea, or of a fishery composed of migratory 

 fishes. 3 The first Article of the law of 1st March 1888, which 

 originated in the North Sea Convention, states that " fishing by 

 foreign vessels is prohibited in the territorial waters of France 

 and Algeria within a limit which is fixed at three marine miles 



1 Norsk Fiskeritidende, 466, 1893 : Revue General de Droit International Public, 

 1894, p. 440. 



2 In July 1910, a British trawler, Onward Ho, while engaged in fishing off the 

 Kanin Peninsula, at a distance, according to the skipper, of 40 miles from Russian 

 Lapland, and admittedly much beyond the three-mile limit, was arrested by a 

 Russian cruiser and taken to Archangel, on the charge of illegal fishing. The 

 vessel was released after representations had been made by the British Govern- 

 ment, the Russian authorities finding that it had been arrested outside the 

 boundary under the protection of the cruiser. The action was doubtless taken 

 in connection with a new law of 10th December 1909, establishing a limit of 12 

 miles from the coast for customs purposes, all vessels, Russian or foreign, being 

 held to be subject to the control of the Russian authorities when within that 

 distance. Handelsberichten, 12th May 1910, p. 135. 



3 "Art. 2. Sur la demaude des prud'hommes des pecheurs, de leurs de'le'gue's et, 

 a defaut, des syndics des gens de mer, certaines peches peuvent etre temporaire- 

 ment interdite"s sur une dtendue de mer au dela de 3 milles du littoral, si cette 

 mesure est commande'e par rinteret de la conservation des fonds ou de la peche de 

 poissons de passage. L'arrete d'interdiction est pris par le Prefet Maritime." 



2 T 



