Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-15
THE SEAL FISHERIES.
How a Great Industry Has
Been DESTROYED.
LEGISLATOR NEEDED
INDUSTRY HAS YIELDED A VAST
REVENUE IN THE PAST.
Senator Dillingham; Reviews the In
jury That Has Been Wrought by
Pelagic Sealing.

The review of events affecting the seal
fisheries of Alaska contained in the report
of the subcommittee of the Senate commit
tee territories that visited the Priblof
Islands and vicinity last fall presents
very clear exposition of the entire question
in relation to that once great industry that
has since 1890 been almost destroyed by
pel1gic sealing.
The report of the subcommittee was pre-
pared by Senator Dillingham;. After recit-
ing the fact that tine islands were the
breeding places for seals when discovered
by the Russians in 1856, the report states:
Since the acquisition of this territory
by the United States it is estimated that
the number of seals taken has been about
2,25O,COO and that their estimated value
has been something over S35,U00!u00, and
that the revenues derived by the govern
ment as tax upon the sealskns taken
has amounted to s7,3655SO. while the rent
of the islands has amounted to $4,000.
Prohibited Taking Of Seals.
In 1870 Congress prohibited the taking
of seals on these islands except by those
authorized by the government SO to do.
Soon after a contract was entered into
with the Alaskan Commercial Company,
giving them the right to take 10000 male
seals over one year of age annually during
a period of twenty years, the consideration
being annual rental of 5000 paid by
the company and the revenue tax of $2.621a
on each skin shipped by them. This lease
expired in 1889.
"A new contract was entered into with
the North American Commercial Company,
under which they paid S60.OoO as rental
of the lands and a tax upon each skin OF
$9.6212, the number of seals taken to be
fixed by regulation of the Secretary of the
rH,a., la L
Der of seals caught annually from 1876
down to and including 1889 was upon an
average something over 100000.
In 1880 owing to the dlmnution of the
to 2U9S5, and has remained low ever since,
and the rental of $6o,0U0 is rebated to
$4,000 or $4,000 annually.
Under Russian. Management.
Under the Russian management hunt
ing the seal industry was systematically
carried on annually from 1917 down to 1884.
1t appears that the number taken by them
in 1917 was 60,1sS, but that the number
taken by them thereafter annually de-
creased year by year until in 1884 only 100
young males and some 5000 pups for the
natives food were taken; for in order to
prevent the complete determination of the
herd the Russians were compelled to stop
all commercial slaughter
1T is said in the Russian record that
only SOOO young seals, male and female,
We're left alive to breed on the Island of
St Paul at the close of the season of 1884.
The slaughter having ceased, the herd then
increased rapidly and to such an extent
that after the islands were acquired by the
Uni,ed States in 1867. and as late as 1874, it
appears that survey of the herds was
ordered by Congress, and it was found that
there were then on the Pribilof Islands
4,I00,OOO fur seals of all ages, bulls cows
ana pups, that a subsequent survey in 1880
disclosed the fact that there were only
9o9'ooo and that in the following year. I'M
DER survey made by both American and
Canadian commissioners the number was
placed at 1,COO,CUU Three years later il
appears by the survey of the Jordan
thompson commission, the number had de-
creased to 100000, while the survey of the
United States fish commission made in IaOO
showed that only 100000 remained The
reason for the rapid decrease in the num-
per of seals upon these islands rests only
In part upon the number killed under the
authority Of the United States.
Other nations have claimed and eyer
clsed the right of pelagic hunting and the
NUMBER or those engaged in this industry
mas . rdpluly increased, so that while in 1872
the number so taken was only 5336 i'm 1S9O
it had SO increased that the number Tins
taken was 1854.
Agreement With Great Britain.
I'm 1898 an agreement was made by the
control of pelagic sealing limiting the
periods and localities in which seals may
be taken by this process, and in 1897 Con-
gress passed an act prohibiting the taking
of any fur seal in the waters of the Pacific
ana north of the Both degree Of north
iautude. and including Bering sea, by cit
izens of the United States
II Is Well-known fact that after the
close of the breeding season the seals leave
the Pribiiof Islands, and passing out be-
tween the different islands of the Aleutian
group into the Pacific ocean are found
during the. months Of November and De
cember making their way southwardly in a
line almost directly toward San Francisco
at which point off the western, coast of the
United States they are found In January
Turing the months Of February. March and
April they are making their way back along
the coast of British America and south
eastern Alaska, and thence following along
the southerly coast of Alaska they again
pass by the Aleutian Islands and make
tEeir rookeries on the Islands of ST Paul
and st. George. This has become so we'll
known that the owners of the pelagic hunt
ing fleet of British Columbia, which has It's
Headquarters at Victoria. B. c.. and which
consists OF some twenty or more small
schoeners. manned by white officers. and
with mixed crews Of whites and Indians MT
out their vessels during December and
January OF each year and all clear between
the LIST and 10th of February at the latest
for what is known the spring catch
Meet Fur Seal Herd.
They ordinarily first meet the fur seal
herd on the coast. of northern California
or Oregon in February. and follow it up
the northwest coast until about the 1st of
May. when they are obliged to suspend the
catch off Prince William sound by order of
the Boring regulation. They resume
the hunt around the seal islands on the LIST
of August, keeping outside the sixty-mile
Zcne recognized by said regulation and
keep. at it until the rough weather of late
September and the early October gales
drive them out, when they return to Vic
toria.
within a comparatively recent period
new fleet has appeared, which is known as
the Japanese feet, consisting of dozen or
more sehooners, QUILTED and entered at
Yokohama. Japan. They fly the Japanese
flag, and it is said they are differed al
most entirely by Americans and Canadians
and have mixed crews of Japanese and In
dams from British Columbia as hunters.
They visit Boring sea in June and hunt all
through the summer outside and inside the
sixty mile zone. up to the three-miles limit