The Sovereignty of the Sea / An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial Waters

by Thomas Wemyss Fulton

[1222] Mr Seward, Secretary of State, to Mr Tassara, 6th December 1862. The same to Mr Burnley, 16th September 1864. Wharton, A Digest of the International Law of the United States, i. 105. American ships were charged with pursuing Confederate vessels into British waters, and the balls from the guns they fired had struck objects on shore. The facts were used to show that the hostile acts had occurred within our territorial jurisdiction. Hansard, vol. 173, p. 509; February 1864.

[1223] Secretary Fish to Sir E. Thornton, 22nd January 1875. “We have understood and asserted that, pursuant to public law, no nation can rightfully claim jurisdiction at sea beyond a marine league from the coast.” Loc. cit.

[1224] Torres-Campos, in Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Assoc. for Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations, 93. Negrin, Tratado de Derecho internacional maritimo, 1883.

[1225] Negocios Externos. Documentos apresentados ás Cortes na Sessão legislativa de 1879 pelo Ministro e Secretario d’Estado dos Negocios Estrangeiros. Questão das Pescarias, p. 258. Lisboa, 1879. The volume contains a full discussion of the questions between the two Governments.

[1226] Tratado de navegación y comercio entre España y Portugal, firmado en Madrid el dí 27 de Marzo de 1893. Apéndice Sexto. Reglamento de policía costera y de pesca. Sec. 1. Disposiciones aplicables á las aguas de cada país, “Art. 1^o. La policía costera y de pesca en las aguas jurisdiccionales de España y de Portugal, quedará sujeta á las disposiciones siguientes. Art. 2^o. Los límites dentro de los cuales el derecho general de pesca, queda reservado exclusivamente á los pescadores sujetos á las jurisdicciones respectivas de las dos naciones, se fijan en seis millas, contadas por fuera de la linea de bajamar de las mayores mareas. Para las bahías cuya abertura no exceda de diez millas, las seis millas se contáran á partir de una linea recta tirada de una punta á la otra. Las millas mencionadas son millas geográficas de 60 al grado de latitud. Art. 3°. Cada una de los Estados tendrá el derecho de reglamentar el ejercicio de la pesca en sus respectivas costas marítimas hasta una distancia de seis millas de las mismas, límite dentro del cual solamente será permitido á los Pescadores nacionales ejercer esta industria.” F. López y Medina, Colección de Tratados Internacionales, Ordenanzas y Reglamentos de Pesca, pp. 44, 49 (Madrid, 1906). I am indebted to Sir Reginald MacLeod, K.C.B., late Under-Secretary for Scotland, for this volume.

[1227] Revista de Pesca Marítima, ix. 97 (1893); x. 209 (1894). Various regulations have been lately made with respect to trawling beyond the six-mile limit at certain parts of the Spanish coast (vide López y Medina, Primer Apéndice a la Colección de Tratados, &c., pp. 34-45. Madrid, 1907), and also on the coast of Portugal (vide Collecção de Leis e Disposições diversas com relação á Pesca e Serviço maritimo dos Portos, pp. 28, 54, 276, 535. Lisboa, 1907). In no other countries, it may be added, have more regulations been made restricting all kinds of trawling than in Spain and Portugal.

[1228] Prof. A. F. Marion, in litt.

[1229] The National Sea Fisheries Protection Association: Twenty-fourth Ann. Rep. of the Committee of Management, 1905, p. 7. “Spanish and Portuguese Territorial Limits. Communications were made to the Foreign Office on the subject of Spanish and Portuguese Territorial Limits, and, in reply, the Association was informed that His Majesty’s Government did not recognise any claims of the Spanish or Portuguese Governments to exercise jurisdiction over British vessels beyond the three-mile limit.”

[1230] Fish Trades Gazette, 10th Dec. 1904, p. 23. London. Boletin Oficial de la Liga Marítima Española; Vida Marítima, Revista de Navegación y Comercio, Pesquerias, &c. Madrid. In 1905 no less than forty-five English trawlers, as well as four German trawlers and one Spanish, landed fish at Lisbon and Oporto, which had been caught in neighbouring waters and as far as Morocco, the value being 332,220 milreis, or about £74,750. Estatistica das Pescas Maritimas, Anno de 1905. Lisboa, 1907.

[1231] A summary of this new law, which received the sanction of the King of Portugal on 26th October 1909, is given in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Seefischerei-Vereins for February 1910 (Bd. xxvi. No. 2), from Diario do Governo, No. 247, viz.: Portugiesisches Gesetz betreffend das Verbot für fremde Fahrzeuge zum Fischen in den territorialen Gewässern. “Art. 1. In den portugiesischen Territorialgewässern innerhalb einer Zone von 3 Seemeilen, von der Linie des Niedrigstwasserstandes an gerechnet, ist fremden Fahrzeugen das Fischen verboten. In den Buchten ist die Zone von 3 Seemeilen gemäss den Grundsätsen des internationalen Rechts zu berechnen.”