Bering Sea Arbitration

The Bering Sea Arbitration of 1893 arose out of a fishery dispute between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States in the 1880s. The United States Revenue Cutter Service, today known as the United States Coast Guard, captured several Canadian sealer vessels throughout the conflict. Diplomatic representations followed the capture of the first three ships and an order for release was issued by the British imperial government (then still in charge of foreign affairs for the Dominion of Canada), but it did nothing to stop the seizures and none were released. This led to the U.S. claiming exclusive jurisdiction over the sealing industry in the Bering Sea, and that led to negotiations outside of the courts. The award was given in favor of the British, however, and the Americans were denied exclusive jurisdiction. The British were awarded compensation for the damage that had been inflicted on their vessels, and the American sealing zone remained as it was prior to the conflict (60 miles).

In 1867 the United States government purchased from Russia all her territorial rights in Alaska and the adjacent islands. The boundary between the two countries was a line drawn from the middle of Bering Strait south-west to a point midway between the Aleutian and Komandorski Islands dividing the Bering Sea into two parts, the larger being on the American side. This portion included the Pribilof Islands, the principal breeding-grounds of the seals in those seas.

By Acts of Congress, passed between 1868 and 1873, the killing of seals was prohibited on the Pribilof Islands and in "the waters adjacent thereto" except upon certain specified conditions. This created a large swathe of friction between the executive and legislative branches of the US government with the presidential veto employed by Ulysses S. Grant on two notable occasions. No definition of the meaning of the words "waters adjacent" was given in the act. In 1870 the exclusive rights of killing seals on these islands was leased by the United States to the Alaska Commercial Company, on conditions limiting the numbers to be taken annually, and otherwise providing for their protection. As early as 1872, the operations of foreign sealers attracted the attention of the United States’ government, but any precautions then taken seem to have been directed against the capture of seals on their way through the passages between the Aleutian Islands, and no claim to jurisdiction beyond the three-mile limit appears to have been made. On March 12, 1881, the acting United States Secretary of the Treasury, in answer to a letter asking for an interpretation of the words "waters adjacent thereto" in the acts of 1868 and 1873, stated that all the waters east of the boundary line were considered to be within the waters of Alaska territory. In March 1886 this letter was communicated to the San Francisco customs by Daniel Manning, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, for publication.

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