LEGISLATION AND THE SEA FISHERIES i6i 



shore. In i$37 a Commission was appointed jointly by the French 

 and English Governments to determine, firstly, the limits within 

 which the subjects of the two countries should be allowed to fish 

 for oysters between Jersey and the neighbouring coasts of France, 

 and, secondly, " to define and regulate the limits within which the 

 general right of fishery on all parts of the coasts of the two countries 

 shall be exclusively reserved to the subjects of Great Britain and of 

 France respectively." This general definition is the only one which 

 need be considered here. 



With the exceptions provided for in the Convention, which were 

 drafted mainly with reference to oysters, it was decided that the 

 subjects of Her Britannic Majesty and the King of the French 

 shall enjoy the exclusive right of fishery within the distance of 

 3 miles from low-water mark along the whole extent of the coasts 

 of the respective countries. It was also agreed that, as regards bays, 

 the mouths of which do not exceed lo mUes in width, the 3-mile 

 distance be measured from a straight line drawn from headland to 

 headland. This Convention was embodied in an Act of Parliament 

 (1843) which contained, in addition to the definition of the limits 

 as above, a number of regulations affecting trawling and oyster 

 fishing. The Act was far from stopping fishery disputes, and the 

 Convention of 1867 followed. In this Convention the exclusive 

 fishery limits were defined as before, and an Act of Parliament was 

 passed (1868) enforcing regulations on British subjects. The 

 reciprocal legislation in France necessary in order to make the 

 Convention binding on French subjects was, however, not passed. 



A joint Conference of the North Sea Powers was held at the 

 Hague in 1881. It was attended by representatives of the British, 

 French, Belgian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, and 

 German Governments. The object of this Conference was not so 

 much to protect the fisheries as to protect the fishermen from one 

 another, in short, to regulate the police of the fisheries in the North 

 Sea outside territorial waters. Incidentally, the question of the 

 territorial limits as regards fishing came up for consideration, and 

 this seems to have given the Conference more trouble than any of 

 the other questions before it. Ultimately the territorial limits 

 were defined as follows : — 



" The fishermen of each country shall enjoy the exclusive right of 

 fishery within the distance of 3 miles from low-water mark along the 

 whole extent of the coasts of their respective countries, as well as 

 of the dependent islands and banks. As regards bays, the distance 

 of 3 miles shall be measured from a straight line drawn across the 

 bay, in the part nearest the entrance, at the first point where the 

 width does not exceed 10 miles." 



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