48 BRITISH FISHERIES 



of an extensive investigation made in 1881 by 

 Mr W. H. Higgin into the question,^ from 

 which it appeared that injuries of various kinds 

 were frequent in occurrence. Many of these 

 were perhaps unavoidable, but there was evidence 

 of wanton destruction of fishing gear. Foreign 

 trawlers, for instance, in many cases, made use 

 of apparatus designed to cut through drift-nets 

 encountered by them, so as to save them the 

 trouble of hauling their nets to avoid fouling.^ 

 Then there was no uniform and recognised method 

 of lighting and marking foreign boats, and identifi- 

 cation of the offender was usually impossible. 

 There were no regulations for the purpose of 

 preventing collisions between boats using different 

 gears and working in proximity to each other. 

 There was no international system of supervision, 

 and no convenient method of legal proceedings 

 with respect to a foreign country. Finally, a 

 most objectionable traffic in spirituous liquors had 

 grown up, and had been attended with particularly 

 unfortunate effects. 



The necessity for international regulation of the 

 North Sea fisheries was therefore most urgent, and 

 a conference of the Powers was held at the Hague, 

 the result of which was the International North 

 Sea Convention of 1882, entered into by Great 



1 Report on the Outrages committed by Foreign upon British 

 Fishermen in the North Sea, 1881 (c. 2878). 



^ See the picture of the " devil " in Mr Higgin's Report. 



