[1127] Montaignac, op. cit.; Parl. Papers, Sess. 1837-38; Rep. Com. Brit. Herring Fishery, 1834.
[1128] Report from the Select Committee on British Channel Fisheries, Parl. Papers, Sess. 1833, No. 676.
[1129] An ordinance of the French Marine Department, of 15th January 1829, prohibited the use of certain nets, as drag and trawl nets, within three leagues of the shore from 15th April to 1st September, and within two leagues from 1st September to 15th April.
[1130] Some of the English fishery Acts then in force, at least nominally, extended jurisdiction beyond the distance of one league with regard to the use of certain nets, &c., and the Committee apparently desired that, besides a zone of exclusive fishery, foreigners should be bound to observe the municipal law for the protection of the spawn and brood of fish that might apply beyond such zone. The Acts referred to were 3 Jac. I., c. 12 (1605), for the better preservation of sea fish, which, inter alia, prohibited the use of certain nets within five miles of any harbour, haven, or creek; 14 Chas. II., c. 28 (1662), regulating the pilchard-fishing in Devon and Cornwall, which prohibited the use of any “drift, trammel, or stream net,” between 1st June and 30th November, within one and a half leagues of the coasts of these counties; 1 George I., stat. 2, c. 18 (1714), which prohibited the use “at sea upon the coast of England” of certain nets, and the landing or sale of undersized fish; the Act 33 Geo. III., c. 27 (1759), prohibited the taking or knowingly possessing “any spawn, fry, or brood of fish, or any unsizeable fish, or any fish out of season.”
[1131] Under the Act 6 Geo. IV., c. 108, 1825.
[1132] Mr Cornish, quoting from his MS. treatise on zoology, said: “It is generally supposed that all sea fish, the cetaceous (sic) and cartilaginous excepted, deposit their ova in sand-banks, in creeks, bays, and shallow water near the shores, because it is imagined that a certain, though a small, degree of the sun’s action on the water and atmosphere is necessary to bring such ova to maturity. This we know to be the case with the salmon species, which always ascend to the shallow parts of rivers for that purpose, and never lay their eggs in deep water, and therefore we infer that the same influence prevails over the sea fish: this cannot, however, be proved, and rests mainly on opinion and probable conjecture, founded on such facts as we are acquainted with.” It may be said that a Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1817 to inquire into the condition of the fisheries on the south coast of Devon, strongly recommended Parliamentary action for the protection of the fisheries, founding on the same erroneous assumption that the fishes spawned near the shore. A Bill was accordingly introduced in the session of 1819, and again in 1822, for the appointment of conservators or overseers of the bays, creeks, and arms of the sea, to supervise regulations for the preservation of the fish coming there to spawn, and of their brood and fry, and applying to a distance of one and a half leagues from the shore; but it did not pass the Lords. Rep. Select Com. on the State and Condition of the Fisheries on the South Coast of Devon, 1817; Parl. Bills, xxii. 587, 601. Eighth Ann. Rep. Fishery Board for Scotland, Part III., pp. 13, 258 (1890); Tenth, ibid., pp. 19, 235; Eleventh, ibid., p. 13.
[1133] Memorials, &c., received by Her Majesty’s Government since 1st January 1832, complaining of the Aggressions of French fishermen on the British Coasts, Parl. Papers, Sess. 1837-38; Supplementary Papers relative to the Complaints respecting the Aggressions of French fishermen on the British Coasts, 1838, ibid., 1839; Reports by the Commissioners for the Herring Fishery, for 1834, 1835, 1839.
[1134] Convention between Her Majesty and the King of the French, defining and regulating the Limits of the Exclusive Right of the Oyster and other Fishery on the Coasts of Great Britain and of France. Signed at Paris, August 2, 1839.
[1135] The line of closure, as will be seen from fig. 16, was not a single straight line, as usual, but a series of lines determined by landmarks. The area between this series and the three-mile limit, from which British fishermen were excluded, measures a little over 100 square (geographical) miles. On the other hand, all of the closing line north of 49° 3´ (and thus the greater part of it) is, curiously, within the three-mile zone; the area outside this line to the three-mile line is about 23 square miles.
[1136] 6 & 7 Vict., cap. 79. “An Act to carry into Effect the Convention between Her Majesty and the King of the French concerning the Fisheries in the Seas between the British Islands and France,” 22nd August 1843. The mesh of trawl-nets, the length of the trawl-beam, the weight of the trawl-irons and of the ground-rope, the mesh of herring, mackerel, “bratt,” and trammel nets, were in no case to be over or under a specified standard. A series of detailed regulations for oyster-fishing was also made, including a close-time and a minimum size. This Act was repealed by the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868 (the Convention Act), 31 & 32 Vict., c. 45, but it was revived by Parliament in 1877 (40 & 41 Vict., c. 42), the Convention of 1867 not having been ratified by France.