Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1889 — BEHRING SEA. [ARTICLE]

BEHRING SEA.

An Important Proclamation Will Shortly - Be lasaed by the A Washington special to the New York Poet of Thursday, says; “The President will soon issue a proclamation relative te the Behring sea which cannot fail to attract international attention. This proclamation will be the first information which most people will have that in the closing hours' of the last Congress an amendment was incorporated in the interterritoriai salmonfishing act which, in effect, declares that the Behring sea is a closed sea. By this legislative enactment, Congress has attempted to settle a grave point over which the nations have contended. The amendment, in its terms, extends the provisions 'of the salmon fishing act to seal fishing in Behring sea; that is to say, the act fdrbids the taking of seal by anyone not authorized by the act within the waters of the Behring sea. This does not exclude them merely from fishing on certain islands. The amendment is, of course, of the greatestwnportance to the Alaska Fur Seal Compahy, as it will preserve the seal fisheries for them. It is also of great importance to the American and Canadian .fishermen who may have been planning to engage m seal fishing in the open waters of Behring sea this season, as so many ot the Canadian vessels did last season. - The act authorizes the seizure of such vessels by United States revenue cutters. The proclamation of the President will call attention to this fact. The act may give' rise to important international complications. It is an attempt by legislative ’ enactment to settle an international question, which the great powers interested may consider still an open one.”