FISHING LAWS. Laws regulating the kill ing or taking of fish. These are divisible into two classes: those which are inn nieipal in their character and sanction, and those which are in ternational.
Some of the rules of municipal law governing fishing rights are fully stated in the article on game laws (q.v.). In Great Britain the right of fishing within the territorial seas and navigable streams belongs prima facie to all British sub jects. If any person claims an exclusive right in such waters the burden of proof is upon him to establish that right by royal or Parliamentary grant or prescription. In this country the same presumption obtains in favor of public fishing in territorial seas and navigable waters, but it is the Stale and not the National Government which ordinarily possesses the power of granting or regulating this right.
English law divides private rights of fishery into three principal classes: (1) common of fish ery, or of piseary, (2) free fishery, and (3) sev eral fishery. The first of these is not to be con founded with a common fishery which designates the public right of all corners to take fish in pub lic waters, hut is a creature of municipal law, and is a right in the nature of a profit, to fish in particular waters in common with other persons.
The second term is used in two senses. By some writers and judges it is defined as a fran chise or exclusive privilege of fishing in a public river, while others make the term synonymous with several fishery. The latter, all authorities agree, designates the right which the owner of the soil beneath non-navigable waters has to fish in those waters. It is a right of property which he may grant to another while reserving to himself ownership of the soil. When so conveyed and held it is a profit a prendre. See PitoFIT a PRENDRE.
A private right of fishery is held subject to the public use of navigable water as a highway and for the free passage of fish. It is also sub ordinate' to regulations which may be prescribed by the State for the public good. Regulations of this character are now very numerous both in Great Britain and in this country. They are in tended primarily to prevent the unnecessary de struction of fish and to promote fish culture. They establish close seasons during which fish of certain varieties may not be caught, they regulate the manner of catching them, they prohibit the fouling of streams and ponds, and they annex severe penalties to violations of these provisions.