Royal fish

Sturgeons, along with whales, dolphins and porpoises, are royal fish.

Under the law of the United Kingdom, whales and sturgeons are royal fish, and when taken become the personal property of the monarch of the United Kingdom as part of his or her royal prerogative.

In England and Wales

According to William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, the "superior excellence" of whale and sturgeon made them uniquely suited for the monarch's use.[1] Sir Matthew Hale added porpoise as one of the royal fish.[2] Near the English coast they belong to the monarch immediately upon being caught, while ownership is also transferred to the monarch when a catch from any location is cast up on the shores. The kings of Denmark and the dukes of Normandy enjoyed a similar prerogative.

The monarch's right to royal fish was recognized by a statute enacted during the reign of Edward II.[3] According to Henry de Bracton, de balena vero sufficit ... si rex habeat caput, et regina caudam: "the king owns the head of the whale, the queen owns the tail".[4] In Moby-Dick, Herman Melville quoted the speculations of jurist William Prynne, that the queen received the tail, in order to be supplied with whalebone for her corsets and stays[5] (although as Melville points out, "whalebone" is in fact baleen, from the mouths of certain whales).

Under current law, the Receiver of Wreck is the official appointed to take possession of royal fish when they arrive on English shores. The law of royal fish continues to excite some notice and occasional controversy, as evidenced when a fisherman caught and sold a sturgeon in Swansea Bay in 2004.[6]

In Scotland

In Scotland, the monarch's property right inheres in those whales too large to be pulled to land by a "wain pulled by six oxen"; in practice, this is interpreted as requiring the whales to be over 25 feet long.[7] Authority to collect them on behalf of the monarch is given to the Scottish Government Marine Directorate.

In Ireland

In Ireland the English Crown, which held the Lordship of Ireland, also claimed the prerogative of taking royal fish, which extended to porpoises and dolphins. There is a record of a dispute between the Crown and Christopher St Lawrence, 2nd Baron Howth in about 1440 over the ownership of an exceptionally large grampus (Risso's Dolphin) which had been stranded on Howth peninsula in Dublin Bay. The Crown claimed it as a royal fish, while Lord Howth claimed it on foot of the immemorial right of his family to possession of every grampus and porpoise taken on the peninsula.[8]

Exmoor Caviar

Exmoor Caviar is the only producer of royal fish caviar or sturgeon caviar in the United Kingdom, and was the first and only company ever to be granted permission to farm caviar in the UK since records began. This permission to farm the royal sturgeon fish within the realm was approved by the Queen in 2013.

See also

References

  1. ↑ William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I, ch. 8 "Of the King's Revenue", ss. X, p. *280
  2. ↑ Hale De Jure Maris c.7
  3. ↑ 17 Edw. II c. 11, De prærogativa regis.
  4. ↑ Bracton, De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ, book 3. c. 3
  5. ↑ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. XC.
  6. ↑ BBC News, Police inquiry over sturgeon sale, June 3, 2004, accessed Oct. 26, 2007.
  7. ↑ Royal Fish: Guidance in Dealing with Stranded Royal Fish
  8. ↑ Ball, F. Elrington History of Dublin Vol.5 1917:Alexander Thom and Co. Dublin p.49
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