The British and Irish sea and salmon F. are, so far, regulated by numerous acts of parliament. It is quite impossible, however, to give a precis of all the provisions which the legislature have laid clown for promoting and protecting our F., they are so numer ous, and many of them quite local. The sea-fisheries are, in effect, tree to all who choose to fish; but the salmon is, by use and wont, as also by acts of parliament passed at various times, private property, although the owners of F. have had to submit them, from time to time, to the regulating power of the legislature.
The following is a summary of the leading points of fishery legislation: From a very early time, statutes have been passed both in England and Scotland for the purpose of protecting the breeding of fish, and preventing the destruction of the spawn or fry. The development of the F. led to a system of advancing public moneys for their encouragement; for this purpose, commissioners were appointed, through whom money was advanced on loan. A treaty was entered into in 1839 between her majesty and the late king of the French, and carried into effect by act of parliament, concerning the F. in the seas between the British islands and France. By this convert
Lion, the limits within which the general right of fishing is exclusively reserved to the subjects of the two kingdoms respectively, are fixed at three miles' distance from low water mark. In 1854, a similar treaty was concluded regulating, inter alia, the com mon rights of fishery between the British colonies in North America and the United States. The Halifax P. commission constituted under the treaty of Washington (1871) gave in 1877 an award or 5,500,000 dollars to Canada for conceding to Americans the right of fishing in Canadian waters. Fresh fish of British taking, imported in British bottoms, may be landed without report or entry. Persons employed in the F., in such manner and under such circumstances as are laid down in 50 Geo. III. c. 108, are exempted from impressment.
It would be well if the various acts of parliament regulating the F. were codified or arranged in seine logical sequence; and the various fishery offices might be consolidated under one governing board, instead of being, as at present, scattered over various public departments, or administered in separate offices.