THE INSHORE FISHERIES 179 



policing a larger area than at present exists. This difficulty would 

 be more apparent than real. A 3-mile limit would be less sinuous 

 and less difficult to police than a i-mile limit ; similarly a 6-mile 

 limit than a 3-mile line. As a general rule illegal steam trawling 

 goes on in fairly close proximity to the limit line, and only far 

 within it in exceptional cases, since the risk of capture and punish- 

 ment is greatly increased in the latter case. Consequently it is not 

 the area — as the Committee seem to think — ^which requires policing, 

 but the line across which the steam trawlers have to escape in order 

 to fish with impunity. The task of preventing smuggling does not 

 increase with the size of the country, but rather with the length of 

 the frontier. And in the case of the fisheries a 6-mile limit, to take 

 an example, would actually be shorter than a 3-mile limit line. 

 The difficulty would be almost entirely eliminated if straight lines 

 were drawn from headland to headland across our bays. These 

 headlands are usually furnished with lighthouses, so the task of 

 policing at night would be facilitated. 



The third difficulty stated by the Committee is " Whether the 

 fishing industry of this country as a whole would gain more by an 

 enlarged territorial area than it might lose by its operations being 

 restricted off the coasts of other countries, which would claim a 

 correspondingly enlarged area of territorial waters." The Com- 

 mittee go on to say, " From the point of view of the inshore fisher- 

 men, apart from all other considerations, it seems obvious that it 

 would be to their advantage to have a larger area of territorial 

 water to themselves ; but in view of the international questions 

 involved, and the fact that the matter is at the present time under 

 the consideration of an Inter-Departmental Committee on Fisheries, 

 we make no recommendation on that point." 



In the first place this statement should be qualified. The expres- 

 sion " it would be to their advantage to have a larger area of 

 territorial water reserved to themselves " does not mean that the 

 inshore fisherman is allowed to do as he pleases. Inshore trawling 

 is subject to regulation as to the size of the meshes of the net which 

 may be used, and there are other regulations which need not be 

 exactly specified. These regulations have for their object the pre- 

 vention of the destruction of undersized fish. It is a comparatively 

 easy matter to enforce these regulations. The other point raised 

 is undoubtedly a most important one, and it is a pity the Committee 

 did not consider it carefully. 



The Committee continue, " It would perhaps be safe to say that 

 almost every witness who appeared before us referred to the whole- 

 sale destruction of undersized fish, especially young flat-fish." 

 The recommendation made on this point is one that might have 



