Behring Sea Fisheries

The question as to the right of Canadian sealers to capture seals in Behring Sea (known as Pelagic Sealing), after being long in dispute, was submitted to arbitration in 1892. The United States claimed to have acquired from Ru ia, by the purchase of Alaska, the exclusive right to the seal fisheries of the Behring Sea, alleging that this right had always been claimed by Ru ia, without protest from Great Britain, and that their interest in the seal herd justified them in putting a stop to pelagic sealing. In 1893 the arbitrators decided that the United States had not acquired any such exclusive right. Further, as authorized by the terms of the reference, they made the following regulations: all sealing within sixty maritime miles of the Probyloff Islands to be forbidden; a close time for seals to be established, and all sealing ve els to be licensed.