The Wilmington morning star., 1940-11-22
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
BY JACK STINNETT

WASf11NI1O YIN, NOV. Zine BeflnS Sea
sealing problem is in again.
This 70-year itch which has kept the State
Department, the Bureau of Fisheries and the
U. S. Coast Guard scratching heads since post
Civil war days has broken out again. It's all
because Japan has just announced that she
wants no further part of that treaty which for
20 years has regulated sealing and prevented
complete extinction of the great seal herds of
the north Pacific.
Russia and Great Britain are also parties to
the treaty, but Japanese abrogation of it prob
ably will have little effect on them. 1t may
have considerable effect on the United States.
Just why the japanese suddenly decided to
abrogate a treaty which has proved so work.
able for nearly 80 years is something of a
mystery.
In the official notification, the Japanese said
the seal herd that bases at the Pribilof Islands,
just inside the fringe of the Aleutians, has got
so large that it is a menace to Japanese fish
cries.
Government fishery experts brand this as
bunk, pointing out that migrations of the Prib-
ilof seals do not carry them into Japanese
waters.
But if this were so, the question that i'm.
mediately follows is how does Japan plan to
remove this menace? And the inevitable an
sWer: By destruction of the great seal herd
which for a good deal longer than 80 years has
been recognized in International law to be
principally the property Of the United States.
FEDERAL OFFICIALS MUM
That isn't official reasoning. AS a matter Of
fact, all government departments affected are
cautiously mum on this latest international de-
velopment in the Pacific.
Unofficially, however. there are off-the-rec-
ord hints that the japanese action was just
another of those reciprocal hooks to the belt
line that are bound to come when nations get
to trading punches.
The background of the story briefly is this:
From the time when the first wandering fisher
man discovered that seal skins and oil brought
big profits, it was open season on these bark.
ing dogs of the briny deep. Seals are easily
caught and killed. Flowing into the herd at
sea, a fleet of small boats can slaughter them
by the hundreds. (This is called peiagic or
surface sealing.)
On land, they can be herded like cattle
away from the waters edge and killed with
clubs. Some idea of how simple it is may be
understood from the fact that the Pribilof
herd, estimated to contain $500. 900 seals in
1905, numbered approximately 125, 900 in
1911.
The story of the Coast Guard cutters serv-
ices heroic efforts to save the herd against
the depredations Of renegade American, Ca
madam and Japanese sealers would fill a vol
une.
On more than one occasion, the Coast
Guards zeal in Selling foreign boats precipi-
tated international incidents, but 1t wasn't I'M
til 1911 that all the nations involved got to-
gether and worked out a plan.
NATIONS DIvIDE
The United States was to take over all kill
ing of the Pribilof herd and give Canada and
Japan each IS per cent Of the skins taken
annually. Japan was to supervise the much
smaller Robben Island herd and give Canada,
the U. S. and Russia each 10 per cent of the
kill. Russia was to handle the even smaller
Commander Island herd and give Japan and
Canada each IS per cent of the kill.
For five years, the seals were not to be
touched and after that, the only seals to be
taken were the three-year-old males.
The plan worked beautifully. The Pribi1of
herd is now over two million. This year the
$50 natives there, working under Bureau Of
Fisheries experts, killed about $1,000 seals.
The skins were shipped to st. Louis for curing
and auction in the fur market. Japan got
about $44, 900 cash. Canada got its share.
AS far as sealing went, everybody seemed
happy-even the s%eals-until Japan called the
whole thing off. l