Since this legislation interferes with the established uses and customs of the fishermen, the burden is upon those who advocate it to prove that the benefit will outweigh the inconvenience. Ever since the influential voice of Huxley was lifted in its defense, the policy of unrestricted capture of the migratory species has continued to grow, this view being strongly supported by many eminent authorities of the present day.
With respect to the bottom fishes, cod, haddock, flatfish, etc., our present knowledge of the remedial effects of fishery restriction is so slight as scarcely to furnish a satisfactory basis even for national waters, much less for complicated international restrictions.
For the purpose of determining the best regulations for preserving the fishery resources with the maximum extent of their utilization, it is not easy to exaggerate the importance of systematic research in marine biology and the effect of fishing operations. Excellent work of this nature has been done and is yet in progress in many countries where the fisheries are of great extent.
International restrictions have been of two general classes, the one for preserving the resources and the other for the maintenance of good order among the fishermen and for preventing the destruction of property. To the former class belong the Bering Sea fur seal regulations, and in some particulars the Anglo-French regulations of 1843; while all the remaining conventions and regulations, the North Sea Conventions of 1882 and 1891, the Anglo-Denmark Convention of 1901 and the Sub-marine Cable Convention of 1884 are of the second class. A review of the history of these regulations shows that the arrangement of joint action is a tedious and difficult matter and ratification of the convention is always uncertain. Indeed, except so far as concerns the police of the fisheries, it does not appear that great practical benefit has resulted from the regulations already enacted for the fisheries in the international waters.
For the preservation of the coastal fisheries by means of municipal regulations, as well as for the more important matters of national defense and safety, the opinion is growing that the three-mile limit of the territorial waters is too narrow and that it should be extended considerably beyond the present distance.
This limit had its origin in the range of cannon, which determined the distance over which a nation was able to exercise jurisdiction from the shore. Since the efficiency of cannon has greatly increased, and is now considerably more than three miles, it is urged that the width of the maritime belt should increase correspondingly. In recent years most of the writers on international law have expressed views favorable to this increase.
The extension of the marginal belt was discussed by the Institut
