Morris tribune., 1897-05-05
A SEAL BOUNTY.

Massachusetts Gives S3 Head For tlat
Fish Eating Hair Seals.
Toa good many persons who live
inland and have nothing which
brings them to the coast much il
4 would be a surprise to learn that
there are any seals along the coasts
of Massachusetts, and especially
that they are sufficiently numerous
and destructive to have made it adj
/ visable to place bounty on them
in order that their number may be
kept down. TO the ordinary dwelle1
4 in the inland districts the seal is an
! animal connected in a vague way
with frozen chimes and information
al arbitration. These are the fur
seals, which provide such of the
sealskin sacks as are not made in
the plush factories, but the. seals of
the New England coasts are crea-
lures of an entirely different stamp.
Their skins are heavy and tough
and are of no use for making sacks,
unless they are mail sacks, and they
are such useless and unpleasant ami
mails that no one would go to the
trouble of killing them if it were
not for the bounty which has been
placed on their heads by the Off
Gals.
This bounty is So head, and it is
paid because there ere so many of
the seals, and they have such an
Unsuitable appetite for fish that if
they were allowed to increase and
multiply and trainfup their children
to eat fish they would have disas-
trous effect on the shore fisheries.
1t has been proved by experiments
that a seal with normal appetite
will eat from 90 to 25 pounds of fish
day, and it can be seen that at this
rate it does not take a very large
number of seals to produce a fish
famine of no small proportions.
Last year the county commission
ers of Essex county alone paid boun-
ties aggregating $3.50 for seals, which
would mean that $50 were killed, as
the bounty is SO head. This, it is
probable, does not represent more
than half of those actually destroy
ed, as only about half are recovered
for the reason that, unless killed at
once, they nearly always manage to
reach the water when shot and sink
to- the bottom when they are dead.
1t is probable that there are along
the coast Of Essex county 1000 seals
at least, and these, figuring %
pounds of fish day for each seal,
would use up 9,125,000 pounds of
fish in the year, or enough to sup
ply 175, 900 persons with four fish
balls every Sunday through the en-
tire year This only represents
small part of the fish which would
be consumed by the Massachusetts,
seals, in the course of the year, as
they are thick all along the south
shore until the sand begins at the
head of Cape Cod, for the seals are
not found to any extent where the
shore is sandy. They prefer the
rocks.
These seals are what are known
as dog seals and are entirely differ
ent in outward appearance from the
fur seals Of the north. Their skin is
smooth and leathery, good. deal
like that of a porpoise, only tough
er. In their general shape, however,
they are a good deal like their north
ern congeners, having the same
round head and large, soulful eyes,
which make it matter of consider
able difficulty for tender hearted
person to shoot one, even for So
There is no regular method of kill
ing the seals, and it is almost all
done fortuitously, and by persons,
usually sportsmen, who are out for
some other reason than the deliber-
ate slaughter of seals for mercenary
purposes. Most Of the killing is done
in the spring, when the seals are
rutting and come out on the rocks
in large numbers. Even then, how
ever, it is not at all an easy matter
to kill them, as they are very shy, |
and unless killed at the first shot
will wriggle off into the water and
die there, sinking to the bottom
The only time at which there was
any organized sealing expedition
was several years ago, when about
20 seals got up into river back of |
Plum island, near Newburypo A
party of enterprising fishermen
stretched a seine across the mouth |
of the river, and at low tide went
and killed all the seals with clubs
Outside of the bounty the seals
are of little value There is a good
deal of oil in them, as, on account
of their unrestricted indulgence in
fish,. most Of them are very fat, and
their skin is worth something for
leather The hoT7ntU was OT,ioinafad