Convention For The Regulation Of The Meshes Of Fishing Nets And The Size Limits Of Fish
Source: Martens, Nouveau Recueil Général de traités et autres actes relatifs aux rapports de droit international, troisième série, vol. 38, pp. 822.
The Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Iceland, the Irish Free State, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden, desiring to conclude a Convention for the Regulation of the Meshes of Fishing Nets and the Size Limits for Fish, have agreed as follows:
Article 1.
The Contracting Governments will take, in their territories to which the present Convention applies, appropriate measures to ensure the application of the provisions of the present Convention and the punishment of infractions of the said provisions.
Article 2.
The vessels to which the present Convention applies shall be the fishing vessels and boats, as defined in Annex V, registered or owned in the territories to which the Convention applies.
Article 3.
Prosecutions for infractions against or contraventions of the present Convention shall be instituted by or in the name of the State or of a Department of State.
Article 4.
The present Convention applies to the fisheries of the North Atlantic and dependent seas as defined in Annex I, excluding the waters specified in Annex II.
Articles 5 and 6 shall not, however, apply to waters in which any Contracting Government has exclusive rights of fishing.
Article 5.
It is forbidden to carry on board any fishing vessel or boat, or to use, any trawl, seine or other net towed or hauled at or near the bottom of the sea having in any part of it meshes of less dimension than those specified in Annex III.
Such nets having meshes of less dimension than those specified in Annex III may, however, be carried on and used by fishing vessels or boats fishing for mackerel, clupeoid fishes, eels, great weevers (Trachinus draco), shrimps, prawns, Nephrops or molluscs. The Contracting Governments undertake to secure that nets to which this exception applies are not used for the purpose of fishing for fish of other kinds than those to which this paragraph applies.
Article 6.
It is forbidden to use any device by means of which the mesh of any part of the net is obstructed or otherwise in effect diminished.
Article 7.
It is forbidden in the territories to which the present Convention applies to land, sell, or expose or offer for sale, any sea fish of the descriptions set forth in Annex IV of less sizes than the sizes prescribed therein for each fish.
The Contracting Governments will make and enforce regulations so that the provisions of this article shall not be evaded in any case where the fish in question have had their heads or any other part removed.
Article 8.
It is forbidden to retain on board any fishing vessel or boat any sea fish of the descriptions set forth in Annex IV of less sizes than the size prescribed therein for each fish. All such fish must be returned immediately to the sea. Such fish may, however, be retained on bord for the purpose of transplantation to other fishing grounds, and the Contracting Governments will make rules governing the retention of fish on board fishing vessels and boats for this purpose.
Article 9.
The Contracting Governments will make and enforce regulations governing the use in their fishing vessels and boats of fishing instruments for the capture of mackerel, clupeoid fishes, eels, great weevers (Trachinus draco), shrimps, prawns, Nephrops or molluscs so that any fish of the descriptions mentioned in Annex IV of less size than the minimum sizes prescribed therein which may be captured by such instruments shall, so far as is reasonably practicable, be returned to the sea immediately after capture.
Article 10.
The present Convention does not apply to fishing operations conducted for the purpose of scientific investigations, or to fish taken in the course of such operations, except that fish so taken shall not be sold, or exposed or offered for sale, unless they comply with the provisions of Article 7 of the Convention and of Annex IV.
Article 11.
The Contracting Governments undertake to set up a permanent Commission, to which each of them will appoint one delegate.
It shall be the duty of this Commission to consider whether the provisions of the present Convention should be extended or altered. For this purpose the Commission shall consult the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, and shall have regard to any advice tendered by the Council.
The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will call a meeting of this Commission within one year from the coming into force of the Convention, and at least once yearly thereafter.
The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will communicate the agenda for each meeting to all other Contracting Governments not less than one month before the date of each meeting.
Reports of the proceedings of the Commission shall be transmitted by the President of the Commission to the Government of the United Kingdom, which will in turn communicate them to all the Governments which have signed or acceded to the Convention.
The Contracting Governments undertake to give effect, on the date stated in the report, to any recommendation of the Commission for the extension or alteration of the present Convention for which every delegate to the Commission shall have voted without reservation.
The Commission shall at its first meeting elect a President to serve for one year, and then draw up for itself rules to govern its proceedings. Such rules may be altered or amended from time to time by a majority vote of the whole Commission. In the case of an even division of votes on any such matter the President shall have a casting vote.
Article 12.
A Contracting Government may, at the time of signature, ratification, accession or thereafter, by a declaration in writing addressed to the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, declare its desire that the present Convention shall apply to all or any of its colonies, overseas territories, protectorates or territories under suzerainty or mandate, and the present Convention shall apply to all the territories named in such declaration, and to fishing vessels and boats registered or owned therein three months after the receipt of the declaration by the Government of the United Kingdom. In the absence of such a declaration, the Convention shall not apply to any such territory.
A Contracting Government may at any time, by a notification in writing addressed to the Government of the United Kingdom, express its desire that the present Convention shall cease to apply to all or any of its colonies, overseas territories, protectorates or territories under suzerainty or mandate to which the present Convention shall have been made applicable under the provisions of the preceding paragraph, and the Convention shall cease to apply to the territories named in the notification and to fishing vessels and boats registered or owned therein three months after the receipt of the notification by the Government of the United Kingdom.
The Government of the United Kingdom will inform all the Governments which have signed or acceded to the present Convention of any declaration or notification received under the two preceding paragraphs, stating in each case the date from which the present Convention has become or will cease to be applicable to the territory or territories specified in the declaration or notification, as the case may be.
Article 13.
The present Convention shall be ratified. The instruments of ratification shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which will notify all the Governments which have signed,or acceded to the present Convention of all instruments of ratification deposited and the date of their deposit.
Article 14.
The present Convention shall come into force three months after the deposit of instruments of ratification by all the Governments which have signed the Convention.
Article 15.
Any Government (other than the Government of a territory to which Article 12 applies) which has not signed the present Convention may accede thereto at any time after it has come into force in accordance with Article 14. Accession shall be effected by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and shall take effect immediately after the date of its receipt.
The Government of the United Kingdom will inform all the Governments which have signed or acceded to the present Convention of all accessions received and the date of their receipt.
Article 16.
After the expiration of three years from the date of its coming into force in accordance with Article 14, the present Convention may be denounced by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The denunciation shall take effect in respect of the Government by which it is made three months after the date of its receipt, and will be notified to the Contracting Governments by the Government of the United Kingdom.
In witness whereof the undersigned, duly authorised thereto, have signed the present Convention in a single copy, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Certified copies of the Convention shall be communicated to the signatory and acceding Governments.
Done in London the 23rd day of March, 1937, in the English, French and German languages, all three texts being of equal validity.
For the Government of Belgium: H. Baels. G. Gilson. For the Government of Denmark: P. F. Erichsen. For the Government of Germany: Ernst Woermann. Alfred Willer. For the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Henry G. Maurice. Geo. Hogarth. For the Government of Iceland: Sveinn Björnsson. Arni Fridriksson. For the Government of the Irish Free State: G. P. Farran. For the Government of the Netherlands: W. J. Janssens. J. J. Tesch. For the Government of Norway: Johan Hjort Johannes Sellag. For the Government of Poland: Profr. Michal Siedlecki. For the Government of Sweden: K. A. Andersson.
Annex I.
Definition of the North Atlantic and Dependent Seas.
The expression „North Atlantic and dependent seas" means, for the purpose of this Convention, the Atlantic Ocean north of the Equator, so much of the Arctic Ocean as lies between 80° west longitude and 80° east longitude, and their dependent seas.
Annex II.
The waters excluded from the operation of the Convention are:
(a) The Mediterranean Sea.
(b) The Baltic Sea and Belts lying to the south and east of lines drawn from Hasenore Head to Gniben Point, from Korshage to Spodsbierg and from Gilbierg Head to The Kullen.
Annex III.
(a) In the waters which are both north of 66° N. latitude and east of the meridian of Greenwich, a minimum size of mesh such that when the mesh is stretched diagonally lengthwise of the net, a flat gauge 105 millimetres broad and 2 millimetres thick shall pass through it easily when the net is wet.
(b) In all other waters to which the present Convention applies, the minimum size of mesh shall be such that when the mesh is stretched diagonally lengthwise of the net, a flat gauge 70 mm. broad and 2 mm. thick shall pass through it easily when the net is wet.
Annex IV.
The fish to which Articles 7 and 8 of the present Convention apply and the sizes below which such fish may not be landed, carried on board or sold, are as follows:
Fish Size Limit for Whole Fish measured from tip of snout to extreme end of tail fin.
(cm.)
Cod (Gadus callarias) 24
Haddock (Gadus aegletinus) 24
Hake (Merluccius merluccius) 30
Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) 23
Witches (Glyptocephalus cynoglossus) 23
Lemon soles (Microstomus kitt) 23
Soles (Solea solea) 21
Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) 25
Brill (Scophthalmus rhombus) 25
Megrims (Lepidorhombus whiff) 23
Annex V.
Definition of Fishing Vessel or Boat.
Fishing vessel or boat" means,any vessel or boat employed for fishing for sea fish or for the treatment of sea fish, and any vessel or boat used partly or wholly for the purpose of the transport of sea fish.
