The San Francisco call., 1897-01-29
NO OPEN SEASON
FOR FEMALE SEALS
Professor Jordan Makes
Some Important Rec
concentrations.
If the Herds Are to Be Pre-
served They Must Be
Well Cared For.
Considers the Proposition to Destroy
Seal Herds as Nothing Less
Than Monstrous.

Professor David Starr Jordan has pre-
pared and sent to Secretary Carlisle re-
port of his observations on the fur seals of
Bering Sea, made by him last summer, in
accordance with a Congressional resolu-
ton. The report is given as merely pre-
liminary, indicating that it may be elabo-
rated upon later, but it deals quite iully
with the practical matters involved in the
preservation of the fur seal.
Any approach to census OF the fur seal
would have been impossible before the
present depleted condition of the rook-
cries was reached, and an accurate census
now is almost an impossibility says the
report, but an attempt was made at count
ing on the rookeries. Some 5000 harems
were nun bered, With 81, ,793 COWS, making
a total of 143, OIL.
The report says further:
The changes in the breeding herd from veal
to year lie in the following elements:
l. The addition of the three-year.old females
who bear their first pups.
2. The loss of females killed at sea in the pre-
vious fall, those killed in the spring, those
killed by the bulls and those destroyed by nat
ural causes. Keeping these elements in mind
we may attempt a comparison between the
breeding helds or 1895 and those OF 1896.
In 1896 10000 klilab e males were taken,
%, 600 of these, 10 the best of our information,
being three-year-olds. Some 1000 or 5000
more of these are left, while nearly as many
more were killed in 1895 as "long" two-year-
olds Of male pups born In 1893, therefore,
about &c. 600 survived until they became kill
able. AS many three-year old females entered
the rookerieS TO bear their first pups in 1896.
These number represent something less than
a third of the pups born in 1898.
A tebulation of the gains and losses from
1895 TO 1896 would run as follows:
ains-Three-year-old females bearing their
first pup (abouD 5000
Loss-Females killed at sea, August, 1895
(about1 .23 600
Females Killed at sea, Apri 1896 (abou0 5000
(about), 5000
Females killed by bulls, 1895, 130
Females lost at sea by natural causes, un-
recorded taoonp.......... .1OoOo
Total. 46. 80
Estimated net loss for 1896, 1919 per cent
OF total breeding 20 30
Pelagic sealing in Bering Sea in August is in
the highest degree destructive to the nerd. If
considered as an industry ii is suicidal one,
as 1t can be profitably continued only under
conditions which must bring 1t to a speedy
end. Pelagic sealing is therefore not properly
an industry at all, as it adds nothing to the
wealth of the world. Since ii began more than
100000 fur seals have been taken in the North
Pacific and in Bering Sea. This means the
death OF not less than 100000 breeding fe-
males, the starvation OF 300, 900 pups, and the
destruction of 100000 pups still unborn. In
this calculation account is taken only of those
OF which the skins have been brought to mar
ket. No record of the animals lost after being
shot or speared is available, though the num-
Der is known to be very great.
Pelagic sealing, in the judgment of the mem
bers of the present commission, has been the
sole cause of the continued decline of the fur
seal herds. 1t is at present the sole obstacle
to their restoration and the sole limit to their
indefni increase. 1t is therefore evident
that no settlement of the ur-seal question as
regards either the American or the Russian
islands can be permanent unless it shall pro-
vide for the cessation of the indiscrim mate
killing of fur seals. both on the feeding
grounds and on their migI ations. There can