The Recent Controversy as to the British Jurisdiction Over Foreign Fishermen More than Three Miles from Shore: Mortensen V. Peters

Emmanuel Mortensen, residing at Grimsby, on the thirtieth of November, 1905, being master of the trawler Niobe, of Sandefiord, Norway, was charged, contrary to a bye law adopted pursuant to a British statute, with using the method of fishing, known as otter trawling, in a part of the Moray Firth, five miles or thereabouts by east by north from Lossie-Mouth, which lies within a line drawn from Duncansby Head, in Caithness, to Rattray Point, in Aberdeenshire and is within the area specified in the bye law referred to, made by the fishery board for Scotland, under a power conferred by statute, which bye law had been duly confirmed by the secretary for Scotland, and duly published. He was thereby liable to a fine not exceeding 100 pounds, on conviction, and, on failure to pay, to not exceeding sixty days imprisonment and to forfeiture of his nets. At the trial, defendant stated, as a preliminary objection, that his steam trawler was registered in Norway, and the locus of the offense as alleged was not within the jurisdiction of the court and, reserving this plea, pleaded “not guilty.†It was proved said trawler was registered in Sandefiord, Norway, and that defendant was a Dane; that he did the act in the plea alleged, and that this was outside a marine league from low water mark on the adjacent coast, and within ten miles thereof.The sheriff “repelled†the preliminary objection, found defendant guilty, imposed a fine of fifty pounds, and, in default, sentenced the accused to fifteen days' imprisonment. Defendant paid the fine and appealed, and the questions of law submitted to the high court of justiciary were, whether the sheriff's court had jurisdiction, and whether the conviction and sentence were “legal and competent.â€