 In 1889, tensions were high between the U.S. and Canada when the U.S. banned Canadians from engaging in the seal hunt in the Bering Sea as part of the ongoing Bering Sea Dispute between the U.S. and Britain.Tupper traveled to Washington, D.C. to represent Canadian interests during the negotiations and was something of an embarrassment to the British diplomats.When, in 1890, the provincial secretary of Newfoundland, Robert Bond, negotiated a fisheries treaty with the U.S. that Tupper felt was not in Canada's interest, Tupper successfully persuaded the British government (then under Lord Salisbury's second term) to reject the treaty.