The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-04-24
Big FLEET OF SEAL PIRATES
JAPAN SENDING 80 SCHOONERS
TO BERING SEA.
Reckless slaughter Planned During open
season while the Empire Is Protect
lng Its Own ROOkeries-N Remedy
IN International Law or Treaties.

Season while the Empire Is Protect
lng It's Own ROOkerles-NO Remedy
In international Law or Treaties.
VICTORIA, B. c., April i7.-The Japanese
sealing schooner Nito Maru, Of MiYako,
owned by j, Kifuchi Of Miyako, Japan, Is in
port here. Capt. Watanuke, who COM
mands her, says she Is the vanguard Of a
feet Of thirty-eight schooners which will 60
TO Boring Sea this year.
The Nito Maru is thirty days out from
Miyako, Japan. and put in here owing to
her chronometer being broken, There are
seven other Japanese sealing schooners
now on this coast, which will hunt during
May and the early part Of June on the
British Columbian and Alaskan coasts, fol-
lowing the homing herds. toward Boring
Sea throughout the closed season.
The japanese vessels now on the British
Columbian coast arc!
Kinsel Marl, Capt. n!.chie, which vessel
hunted of this coast last season and was
alongside the schooner Carlotta g., Cox
last May when that vessel, recently con-
demned. was seized.
Toro Maru. Capt. Hagaman, a BONN
Island %sealer, who has not been previously
on this coast.
Kaiwo Maru. one Of the two sealers
seized last year in Boring See by the United
States revenue cutter Perry and afterward
released.
Aitoku Marl, in charge Of Capt Thomp-
son, one Of the former Victorians arrested
by the Russians in 1905 when the schooner
Houksuei Maru vas sunk by the Russian
cruiser Gromoboi.
Matsu Maru, on which Fred Cochrane, a
former Victorian sealer, is engaged as one
Of the hunters.
Toyoi Maru, one Of the schooners con-
cerned in the raid Of June, 1905. on the
Seapandi rookery on the Pribylof Islands,
now in command of Capt. Harry jacobson,
a former Victorian %sealer, who has with
him several Victorians.
There will be about thirty eight
schooners from japanese ports in Boring
Sea this year. much more than went there
last year said Capt. Watanuke. Last
year our catch was not so much skins.
There was an average Of 27O sealskins for
each schooner, and about thirty-fve
schooners which went to the Sea Of japan,
the Kurile Islands, the Copper Islands and
Boring Sea sealing grounds took about
10000 skins. The small schooners only
hunt now in the Sea Of Japan and of the
Rurile Islands, Copper Islands and Boring
Sea. There will be many schooners in
Boring Sea this year, for Japanese are not
governed by regulations there"
On this coast the Canadian sealers are
returning to port, as the season for them
ends at the close Of this month. From that
Time until the beginning Of August the
sealing grounds are closed to them on this
side Of the 1SOth meridian. The closed
season is part Of the restriction PLACID
upon the Canadian sealers in consequence
OF the modus vivendi to which Great Britain
and the United States agreed following
the Paris tribunal Of 1894. The JAPANESE
Government not being a party to that
mOdus vivendi, and at that time no
thought being held that in the years to
come there would be a large fleet Of Japa-
nese s%ealers, the sealing schooners like the
Nito Maru. now in port, and her mates
fylng the japanese flag are not bound by
any closed season.
At this time the migrating seals are
following the feed northward, returning
from their southern trip to the hauling
grounds on the Pribylod Islands in Boring
Sea. The regulations we're made for the
purpose Of protecting the honing seal and
to this end the seal hunters were forced
TO stop hunting at the end of April. The
Japanese sealers, however, are not restricted
from coming across the Pacific 10 follow
the homing seal herds all the way to Boring
Sea, preying upon them as they swim
northward. They are not kept from Boring
Sea until August opens like the local s%ealers,
nor are they restricted to the Use Of spears
there and 10 limits set at a distance Of sixty
miles from the seal islands. The great
feet OF Japanese vessels may 60 into Boring
Sea with the homing seal, Use firearms and
hunt the fur bearers TO within three miles
OF the rookery, There have been in
stances when they have not stopped at the
three mile limit set by international law,
the raid by the schooners Toyoi Maru and
Myie Maru in 1903, when five Japanese were
shot and killed and twelve wounded, being
a case in point,
Last year there we're many raids at the
Copper Islands and some Of the gealers
we're seized. Those on board the schooner
Nito Maru state that the old schooner
Diana was sunk last year by a Russian
when caught attempting a raid at
Islands. The rookeries at Rohben
hank which we're taken over by the Japanese
VI tHo Ohholeh ptd az part OF tne Spots
Of war are being well protected, however, |
and the old gunboat Musashi ia patrolling
preventing all sealing for a term Of
five years. This IL being done in order to
allow the herd to Tecuperate from the effect
the disastrous raids which occurred
there while the Russian guard was with
drawn during the war. In one raid made
by five schooners in 1905 several thousand
we're taken from this rookery.
and the raids thinned the herds there so
much that when the Japanese Government
the island it abolished sealing in
that vicinity to allow the seals a chance to
accumulate AGAIN |