New Britain herald., 1922-11-07
SEEK ID FORBID
 KILLING OF SEALS.
Treaty Under Way to Preserve
 Sea Mammals

San Francisco, Nov, 7.--(By the As- sociated Feasibility years ago Time -juicer," as the big square, -rigged sailing vessel of that time was called, would have to shorten sail and steer a careful course along the South Pa cific coast at certain seasons If 1t wanted to avoid destructive collisions with the California grayback whale. And If the skipper trained his glass along the coast line, he probably would see every exposed rock or sea- ward shoal black with elephant and fur seals. Closer in he would note great tortoises and sea turtles. while above would wheel the Herman gull, Such an orgy Of destruction has been loosed on these sea creatures some of them termed by scientists to be the biggest animals in the world" In the last half century. that there is a campaign on today to have the state department negotiate treaties with all countries bordering on the Pacific to prevent their absolute extermination.
 Meat Was Eatable
 One of the great mammals. Steller's sea COW, already has joined the Great Aux. the Dodo and other storied crea- lures of dead age. In 1741, when the exploring ship of Captain vitus Bering was wrecked on the island that bears his name, the great. sluggish sea cows were found floundering about by Dr. George William Settler, doctor of i the expedition. Large herds later were seen feeding on the kelp and seaweed around the nearby Commander islands and it soon was found that their meat ] made an excellent human food.
 When the news of the discovery of l Bering Island was made known to the | world several expenditions were fitted out to hunt the sea COW. How we'll they succeeded is attested in the fact that by 1754. only 13 years after its discovery. this great animal, "A to 30 feet long and weighing three or four tons when fully grown, disappeared from the ocean. Moved by the near ness of similar fate for the walrus, the elephant seal. the sea otter and the southern whales, the committee on Conservation of Marine Life of the Pacific, a part of the American Asso- citation for the advancement of science has started the campaign to have the state department act
 One hundred years ago, the com mittee points out, a species of fur seal had extensive breeding rockeries on the Farallon Islands and other islands on the coast line of California and Mexico. More than 100000 of these seal were killed in the short period between 1908 and 1911 on the Farallons alone, while thousands of others were added to the slaughter on the channel islands to the southwark. This campaign virtually exterminated this species of seal.
 Object to Killing
 Further objections to the wholesale | extermination of whales have been raised by the sardine fishermen of Monterey Bay, California, who claim that the whales herd the sardines ih- shore. Recently the examination of the stomach of humpback whale brought into the Moss Landing whal- inf station in Monterey Bay yielded from 1900 to 5000 pounds of sardines. Tn the stomach of sperm whale was found ten foot shark.
 Due to the failure of the United States and Great Britain to include Japan in the treaty of 1892 forbidding the killing of seals in the open sea, the Alaska fur seal herd was decreased by nearly soo,ooo from 1897 to 1s11' according to scientific date. new