Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-09-23
The Sealing Season.

The Victoria sealers have had a
successful season in Behring Sea in
the face of systematic efforts on the
part of the United States revenue
cutters to protect the fisheries. The
Rush has seized large number of
skins, but most of the sealers have
returned to port with a big catch.
This illegal traffic practically opened
in 1879, when 1880 skins were
landed in the ports of British Column
bia, and it steadily increased until in
1886 nearly $4,000 skins were taken.
In 1887 the illicit trade declined, ow-
ing to the vigorous efforts of the
treasury department to enforce the
laws, yet %, 211 skins were taken on
the northwest coast of America, II, >
800 of these being seized by the rev.
enue service. In 1888 the poachers
had everything they wanted, no at
tempt being made by the Rush to
prevent sealing, and the catch great
ly exceeded that of 1886. This year
the fleet has been the largest ever
seen in those waters, and the sealers
have returned to Victoria with thous-
ands of skins under matches. The
prize crews have been unable to take
such vessels as were seized into Sit
ka Harbor, and some Of the poachers
have resumed fishing after receiving
instructions to obey the commands
of the officers or seamen placed on
board by the Rush. 1t is evident
that a great impulse will be impaired
to this traffic by this seasons opera
tions, and that another year there
will be q swarm of fishing schooners
in the waters of Behring Sea bent
upon capturing from $4,000 to 100,-
900 skins.
The practical inference to be drawn
from these facts is that the fur-seal
is menaced with speedy extermina
ton in the only remaining fishing
ground on the globe. The annual
yield of the fisheries in the Pribyloff
and Russian islands of Behring Sea
is 136,960 skins, the number being
limited by law at all these islands.
If the adjacent waters are to be
secured by poachers, and another
100000 taken by methods of indis-
eliminate slaughter, the fur-seal will
disappear speedily from the North
Pacific, as it has disappeared in the
past in Antarctic waters and off
southernmost capes of Africa and
the American continents. The seal
ers this year have used spears and
rife and ball, but another year they
will spread gill-nets across the watery
lanes converging from the Aleutian
channels toward the breeding grounds
on the Pribyloff Islands. With these
nets the catch will be enormously in
creased, so that within a year or two
as many fur-seal will be taken on the
way to the islands as the Alaska
Company is allowed to slaughter on
the breeding-grounds. The poachers,
moreover, will take anything that
comes along without reference to
sex or the breeding and rearing of
young seal; and by their reckless
and indiscriminating methods they
will complete the ruin of these fish
cries within few years unless imme-
diate steps are taken to prevent the
wholesale destruction of the fur-bear-
ing amphibians.
The lease of the Pribyloff Islands
by the Alaska Seal Company will ex'
pire in August, 1890. If the priv
leges for which remuneratiye rental
has been paid to the United States
treasury for twenty years are to bt
renewed, some understanding viii
have to be reached within a few
months respecting the degree of pro
lection which will be guaranteed t.
that corporation or 10 some compel
ing bidder. The future policy CT TIN
treasury department will have to b
determined before a new lease can b
granted. If the illegal traffic is to b
broken up and the destruction of til