No. 1.
Mr. Bayard to Mr. Vignaud.
*
Washington , August 19, 1887.
Sir: Recent occurrences have drawn the attention of this Department to the necessity of taking steps for the better protection of the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea.
Without raising any question as to the exceptional measures which the peculiar character of the property in question might justify this Government in taking, and without reference to any exceptional marine jurisdiction that might properly be claimed for that end, it is deemed advisable—and I am instructed by the President so to inform you—to attain the desired ends by international cooperation.
It is well known that the unregulated and indiscriminate killing of seals in many parts of the world has driven them from place to place, and, by breaking up their habitual resorts, has greatly reduced their number.
Under these circumstances, and in view of the common interest of all nations in preventing the indiscriminate destruction and consequent extermination of an animal which contributes so importantly to the commercial wealth and general use of mankind, you are hereby instructed to draw the attention of the Government to which you are accredited to the subject, and to invite it to enter into such an arrangement with the Government of the United States as will prevent the citizens of either country from killing seal in Behring Sea at such times and places, and by such methods as at present are pursued, and which threaten the speedy extermination of those animals and consequent serious loss to mankind.
The ministers of the United States to Germany, Sweden and Norway, Russia, Japan, and Great Britain have been each similarly addressed on the subject referred to in this instruction.
I am, etc.,
- Identic instructions were sent to our ministers to Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, and Sweden and Norway.↩