halt during the war years. The post-war years saw the development of a fleet heavily based on otter trawling, less involved in distant-water fishing than the English fishing sector. History of national waters The concept of "freedom of the seas" has endured since the seventeenth century, when the Dutch merchant and politician, Hugo Grotius, defended the Dutch Republic's trading in the Indian Ocean, with the argument of "mare librum", based on the idea that fish stocks were so abundant that there could be no possible benefit obtained by claiming national jurisdiction over large areas of sea. His arguments prevailed, and freedom of the seas became synonymous with the freedom to fish. Countries such as Scotland had claimed exclusive rights to fishing in inshore waters as early as the fifteenth century, but there was no formal consensus as to how far off shore these areas extended. This ad hoc situation was codified by legislation in the 1930 Hague Convention on International Law. However, only Chile and Peru claimed more than a few miles of territorial waters. This system endured until the 1970s, when it became apparent to nations with large fishery resources that "their" stocks were being overexploited by non-local fishermen. The 1973 UN Conference on Law of the Sea allowed national limits, which were immediately claimed by a number of countries. Gadoid outburst and Common Fisheries Policy Fisheries are mentioned briefly in the Treaty of Rome. "The Common Market shall extend to agriculture and trade in agricultural products. ‘Agricultural products’ means the products of the soil, of stockfarming and of fisheries and products of first stage processing directly related to these products." Fisheries policy was seen, therefore, as an extension of the arrangements for agriculture, and the European Commission interpreted this as requiring a common policy dealing with fisheries. In 1968 the first proposals were put to the Council of Ministers for a Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Implementation of the CFP was delayed by the difficulty in member states reaching agreement on the provisions of the legislation required. An agreement on the two regulations which make up the CFP was eventually reached on the night of 30 June 1970 - the day that negotiations were due to start for the accession of the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Norway. The six existing members were keen that a CFP should be in place before negotiations began and should therefore become part of