Z FUR SEALS AND THE SEAL FLSHERIES By Charles H. Townsend Director .Wcc ^'orl: .\k Aiiuminni, Xriv 'Wnk ( ily. The history of tlic worki's seal fishcTics is larii;el\' one of wasted resources. Very few seaHi:g iiKlustries have been coiuhicted aceordiii.g to methods designed to perpetuate the race. Yet from a commercial point of view, seals are the most important of the carnivorous animals. As a group the\ are prol)abh,- also the most abundant of the larger wild mammals at the present time. It is doul^tful whether the herds of bison in .America and of antelopes in Africa ever exceeded the seals in point of numbers. They are of world-wide distribution, and although the fur-seal fisheries of the Xorlh Pacific have received much inter- national consideration during recent years, they were formerly not the only seal fisheries of importance. Tlu' pursuit was at one time carried on in the Antarctic regions as well as in the Arctic. The Antarctic sealing grounds have long been exhausted comiiKrciallv, liowever. .All seals breed on land or on ice iloes, and return, after their migrations, to their accustomed breeding places with great persistence. Tln'\- can seldom be driven entiri'ly away, stupidly lingering until Ijrought near the point of extermination. So certain are they to return to tlieir breeding grounds thai the reestalihshment of the flifferent si^ecies soon follows llie protection of these places. The safeguarding of depleted sealing grounds would, in fact, be a good business proposition even at this late day, if they could l)e protected imder the authority of the various governments laying claim to such lands. .ANTARCTIC SE.ALS. The various species of .\ntarctic fur seals (genus Aictocvplialits) were found about the southern shores and islands of South Africa, .\ustralia. New Zealand, and the islands of the Antarctic generally. About the close of the eighteenth century there sprang up a traffic in the skins of fur seals, and as the result of the many voyages to those distant regions enormous numljcrs of the animals were taken. By 1830 the supply of fur seals in the southern seas was nearh" exhausted, 'fhe species exists to-day as mere remnants of tlie great herds that were once found in those regions. 3iS T'.ri.LKTix <>;• Tiii{ bureai.' of fisheries. In tiiis scalin<:; no cliscrirniiiatii)n \\'as nuuU- in the cliaracter of the seals takcai. All animals whose skins were of ain' \ alue were slaughtered, and the ne\vl\' lj()rn \'oun.;-, usually left on the killin,;' .i;rounds. died of starvation. In the rnsli to the .\ntaretie scalin,i; ejmunds the markets were frefjuently glutted and much of the catch wasted. "I'he South .Vfrican fur sea! (.1 ixioccpluihts b- able, indeed, that a few individuals l;a\x- escaped this last slaiigliter, and with the ])rompt protection of the rookerii-s b\- the Government f)f Ecuador a fishery could yet be established. Another species of fur seal {Aicti>ccplia!ns loiciiscndil , llie most northerh- ofYshoot of the Antarctic race, formerly inhabited Guadaloiqie and other islands off the west coast of Lower California. From the scattered records that have been found it a])pears that 15,01)0 seals ha\e been taki'ii there within comjiara- ti\X'ly recent years. (The earlier records are not a\'ailaljl<.\) During the writer's visit to Ctuadaloupi', in 1S92, straggling fur seals were obser\ ed about the iNland, and specimens obtained prei\-ed the specier^ to be new to science. It FfR SEALS AND THE SEAL FISHERIES. 319 is possible that there is a sufficient remnant to warrant tlie behef that tlie race could be reestabUshcd if the islands were properly protected I)y the C.o\-ernment of Mexico. The value of fur-seal skins taken in tropical or semitrojiical localities is, however, small as compared with those from cold climates. In all the history of Antarctic sealing there is but one chapter of wise management and thought for the future: The Government of I'ruguav has, throughout all tliese years, carefully preserved the fur-seal rookeries of Lobos Island, at the mouth of La Plata River, inhabited by Aiclocephaius auslialis. These small rookeries illustrate the good resulting from the careful protection of the seals upon their breeding grounds. Commercial sealing was carried on ut Lobos Island prior to 1820. The lessees of the island, operating imder the direction of the Government of I'ruguay, placed upon the London market, from 1873 to 1Q04, 377,033 skins, or an average of over 13,000 a year, worth in lyoi Sioo,ooo. All these were derived from a single island less than i mile in length. The following data show the yield of skins from Lobos Island during recent years: 1902,12,922; 1903,10,994; 1904,8,349; 1905,2,025; 1906,8,398; 1907, 4,373; iS, 2,990. The Lobos seals are now menaced by pelagic sealers, and some vessels have been seized by the Government of l'rugua\'. In 188S, when in the vStraits of Magellan, I found the fur-seal herds of that region nearly exterminated by the hunters working among the Fuegian Islands. The recent catch from what is called in the trade the Cape Horn region is as follows: 1905, 11,190; 1906, 13,628; 1907, 16,786; 1908, 8,262. NORTHERN FUR SEALS. The history of Robbin Island, in the Okhotsk Sea, is especially noteworlhv. 'I'his island is about 600 yards in length and less than 100 yards in width, and >-et incomplete records show that more than 60,000 seals ha\-e been taken there Ijy raiders since 1870. A remnant of this herd has remained annually to rejjop- ulate the rookery, which at the present time contains little more than 1,000 seals and is protected by llie Russian Government. The scattered fur-seal rookeries in the chain of volcanic islands stretching northward from Japan, known as the Kurils, have also Ijcen destro\'ed by raiders during recent years. The history of the extermination of these seals, as furnished to the writer by men who engaged in the slaughter, is exceedingly interesting. Notwithstanding the fact that raids were made )ear after year, the scattered remnants of the herds still clung to their old breeding grounds. The incomplete records at hand show that more than 25,000 seals were taken from the Kuril Islands l)y raiders since 1880. These rookeries were visited by the I'nited States Fisheries steamer Alhalross in 1897, and all the rookeries were found to have been wiped out with the exception of one, upou which there 320 BI'LLETIX ( >F THK RUKEAU OF FISHERIES. were about loo seals reniaiiiin.i(. It is Ijelieved that these will l-.e protected hv Japan, to which countr}- they heloni;. The seal inhabiting; Rubljin Island and the Kuril Archipelago is now known as Cilii)ni.s uim'hh.s, \-iliile that breed- ing on the Pribilofs is Calloiliimts u'csrumis. Although, the two species breed upon islands lying in the same latitude and less than 1,000 miles apart, there is no connningling. The former migrates southwestward in winter along the Asiatic coast, while the latter migrates southeastward along the American coast. Upon the discovery of the fur-seal islan.d^ of Bering Sea, more than a century ago, seals were found in great multitudes. For many years they were killed indiscriminately, but the Russian Goxernment linalh- took charge of them and directed the hsheries in such a way that they were regularlv ])roductive. The Pribilof Islands in the twenty years after the accession of Alaska yielded more than $7,000,000, the jirice paid for the entire District. About twentv-fiye years ago the practice of pelagic sealing — the killing of seals in the open sea — developed into an extensive industry, since which time the sui>ph- of seals has steadily decreased. Although during the winter nmnths the fur-seal herds migrate into the Pacihc Ocean, tiiey are in sunnner located on their ancientl\- estal>lished breeding places in liering Sea. The hslu'rv is conducted under go\-'..Tnment super- vision, and a certain number of seals nia\' be killed on the inlands, selection l)eing made in accordance with tl;e natural habits of the animals. Fur seals are highly polygamous, and the rookery conununities are di\ided up into harems. The males arrive at the islands and fight furiously for the possession of territorw The females, arriving soon after the males luive established themselves, arc (li\ ided up among them, in numl)ers \arying from a dozen to a hundred to each male in extreme cases. This arrival occurs in Jime, and the \'oung are Ijorn the last days of June or in the early part of Julv. The young seals remain with their mothers until the latter part of .\ugust. The seal herd lingers about the islands until late in the fall, wlun tlu- .mnual movement into the I'acilic Ocean takes jil.ice. The highly polygamous haljit nf the fur seals naturalh' results in a large surplus (if males, which surj)lus, when the Tdokeries were in their liest condition, amounted to aliout ion, 000 immature- males a year e>n the I'ribiiofs and over 35,000 a year on the Commanders. These half-grown males herd hv themselves, on so-called " hauling grounds" adjacent to each breeding rookery, and it is from them that the annual ealcli on the islanils has alwa\'s lieen made. The seals are quietly surrounded, and without diificulty are driven inland, entirely away FUR SEALS AND THE SEAL FISHERIES. -,2I from the rookeries of breeding seals, as easily as a band of sheep. The}' are killed and skinned by the natives, the skins are counted by government agents, and are then placed in the salt houses of the lessees of the islands for a month's curing, when they are shipped to London, which has always been the world's fur-seal market. The selecting and killing arc accomplished without noise or disturbance, and everything is done decently and in order. The United States and Russian Governments have nc\'er allowed any disturbing of the breeding . rookeries and have never permitted the killing of female seals. The breeding stock upon the islands has therefore remained undisturbed, and would, but for the international nuisance of pelagic sealing, have yielded forever a world supply of sealskins. Pelagic sealing, however, practiced in the open sea both in and out of season, permits of no selections being made, and the catch consists of }-oung and old, male and female. By far the greater portion, however, is female seals, for these, after the young are born, go to sea to feed, ranging as far as 200 miles from the islands and returning at more or less regular intervals to nurse their voung. The killing of females at this season is followed by the star\'ation of all nursing young on the breeding grounds, the loss of young in this manner corresponding with the number of mother seals taken by the sealing vessels. In ten vears pelagic sealing in the adjacent waters and in the Pacific Ocean destroyed the \'alue of the Pribi- lof and Commander islands as government properties. The seal herds are now so decimated thai the surplus males available for killing on the Pribilof Islands are less than half as many as in i