716 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



The Irish Fishery Department have made a very large 

 number of byelaws, at various times and under various Acts, 

 for the regulation or prohibition of trawling. Of these some 

 forty-four are at present in force, twenty-two applying to all 

 trawling and twenty -two to steam trawling alone, and one or 

 two of them date from the years 1842 and 1851. l Under these 

 byelaws trawling in one form or another is prohibited entirely 

 or under certain conditions at most parts of the coast of Ire- 

 land ; and on certain parts of the coast not inconsiderable 

 stretches of the sea, beyond the three-mile limit and the limit 

 for bays as defined in the fishery conventions, are closed against 

 this method of fishing. The lines around the coast within 

 which trawling is prohibited, in many instances pass between 

 headlands which may be as much as twenty -six, and even 

 forty-three, miles apart ; not infrequently they are drawn, not 

 between headlands, but from one light-ship to another, and 

 these light-ships may be four or five miles from land and 

 twenty miles apart. Sometimes the closing line is placed three 

 miles to the seawards of such base-lines : and they may pass 

 from about two to seven or eight miles outside the limit as 

 defined in the conventions, and in some instances up to ten or 

 eleven miles from low-water mark on the shore. 



It is obvious that the principle upon which these lines have 

 been drawn has been one of convenience. They differ entirely 

 from the lines of closure in the two Scottish Firths referred to 

 below, which are inter fauces terrce with the lines passing 

 from headland to headland. But all the lines on the Irish 

 coast are well within the range of guns from the shore, and 

 are thus, according to the Law of Nations, within the terri- 

 torial sea. The aggregate area beyond the ordinary limits of 

 the conventions amounts to a little over 400 square (geo- 

 graphical) miles. 



It does not appear that foreign trawlers have been found 

 contravening the Irish byelaws to any great extent. Between 

 June 1904 and September 1905 seven steam-trawlers and one 

 sailing-trawler were captured fishing within the limits, one of 

 the former being registered in a foreign country, and, with 

 regard to it, the official report says " it was found impossible 



1 Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland: Report on the 

 Sea and Inland Fisheries for 1907. Part I., General Report, pp. 56-62. 



