Seward daily gateway., 1925-08-20
NOTED BRITISH
 FISHERIES MAN
 TELLS OF SEALS
J. p. BABcock, REGENT VISITOR IN SEWARD SENDS INTEREST," ING ARTICLE ON FUR SEAL.

As was published in the Seward Gateway the forepart of last month, P. J. Babcock, head of the British Columbia Fisheries department, who was a recent visitor in Seward, fol- lowing his return from trip ot ln- spection of the seal r0okeries to the westward and who was reputed to be the unofficial representative of Great Britain in the matter of the seal treaty, the first of the seal and haibut articles which he kindly said he would submit at later date, was received yesterday, and is published herein:
 The history of the worlds fur seal fisheries is record of cruelty and waste. Commercially the fur-seals were formerly the most valuable of fur-bearing animals. As group they were the most abundant. They were of worldwide distribution, be- ing found in the Antarctic, on both the east and west coasts of South America. in Japan, on the Comman- der Islands, on the coast of Austral- ia and New Zealand, and Alaskan waters. Virtually all but those on the Pribilof Islands, the Commander Is- lands, and the Japanese Islands, and
 scIo Uruguay, have been commercially ex- terminated.
 Alaska, was formerly the largest. On the purchase of Alaska in 1867 by the United States this herd was estimated to contain over two million individ- ual seals. Some estimates placed it as high as three millions. Under the policy adopted by the American government killing was limited to bachelor males taken on land. Pe- lagic killing was not permitted. The total number killed per year was limited to one hundred thousand of these bachelor males only. The to- tai pelagic catch in the North Pacific up to 1906 was S77,331. The skins were sold in London for s10,307, ,359. The total bachelor male skins taken from the Pribilof Island herd in those thirty-eight years-186S to 1906 in- clusive-totalled 3,341,579 and the raw skins were sold in London for s47,242,99S.
 Due to the rapid increase in pelag- ic sealing and the fatal effects of such practice, the herd on the Prib- ilof Islands rapidly declined. The census of the herds in 1911, when the treaty became effective, showed that the herds totalled but 127,000 indi- viduals, and the kill of bachelor males on the island that year was but three thousand seven hundred and sixty four.
 The Fur-seal Treaty came into ef- feet in 1911. Since that time kill ing has been confined to the islands only bachelor males being taken. The 1923 census of the herd showed that it had increased to 697,15S individual seals, gain in fourteen years of 570,158, or nearly 450 per cent. The number of skins taken in 1923 totalled 31,156 or 27,392 more than in 1912, a gain of over 120 per cent.
 Fur seals breed only on land. They return after migration, to their GUS tomary breeding places with great persistence. They cannot be driven away, stupidly remaining untl nearly exterminated, as was the case on all rookeries in the Antarctic, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Japan and Siberia. So certain is their habit of returning to their breeding grounds that establishment soon follows protection.
 Fur-seals are highly polygamous and the rookery communities are divid- ed into harems. The breeding male bulls over six years of age-arrive at the islands first early in June and fight furiously for possession of a place The females follow and di- vide themselves over the rookery in numbers of from twenty to a hun dred to a male. The bachelor males and the immature females accompany the northern migration and haul out'' on the rock adjacent and over- looklng the breeding grounds. The young are born in the harem shortly alter the females arrive and remain there until the last of August or un- til early in September, being nursed T1on