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).
[citation needed] 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 U.S. government with the presidential veto employed by Ulysses S. Grant on two notable occasions.
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.
[2] As a result of this practice, the real possibility of the destruction of the seal fisheries became apparent, together with industries valuable to both the United States and Great Britain.
[1] In the summer of 1886, three British Columbian sealers, Carolena, Onward, and Thornton, were captured by an American revenue cutter, Corwin, 60 miles from land.
The British imperial government (then still in charge of foreign affairs for Canada) repudiated the claim, but was willing to negotiate on the question of international regulation.
[citation needed] Between 1887 and 1890, negotiations were carried out among Russia, Great Britain and the United States with a view to a joint convention but the parties were unable to agree on basis for regulating sealing in the open seas, the pelagic zone.
The claim that Bering Sea was mare clausum was abandoned, but it was asserted that Russia had formerly exercised therein rights of exclusive jurisdiction which had passed to the United States, and they relied inter alia upon the ukase of 1821, by which foreign vessels had been forbidden to approach within 100 Italian miles of the coasts of Russian America.
This was ultimately assented to by the secretary of state, James Gillespie Blaine, on the understanding that certain specific points, which he indicated, should be laid before the arbitrators.
On the other hand, pelagic sealing, being a method of promiscuous slaughter, was illegitimate; it was contra bonos mores and analogous to piracy.
The question of damages, which had been reserved, was ultimately settled by a mixed commission appointed by the two powers in February 1896, the total amount awarded to the British sealers being $473,151.26 - in excess of US$10 million in present-day inflation-adjusted dollars.
Since the decision was in favor of Great Britain, in accordance with the arbitration treaty the tribunal prescribed a series of regulations for preserving the seal herds which were to be binding upon and enforced by both powers.
[5] A joint commission of scientists from Great Britain and the United States further considered the problem, and came to the conclusion that the pelagic sealing needed to be curtailed.