Seal Fisheries

The typical adult male or bull (sikatch) of the second group attains maturity about the seventh year, and weighs from 400 to 500 lb. It is 6 ft. in length, with a girth of 41 feet. The fur is blackish or dark brown, with long yellowish-white hairs, especially long and firm on the back of the neck, forming the so-called "wig" or mane. The animal stands erect and runs or "lollops" along the ground when on land. The adult female, or cow (matka), is much smaller, averaging about 8o lb. in weight, with length and girth in proportion. The fur is of varying shades of brown; she bears her first young at the age of three years. The breeding-grounds are boulder-strewn beaches or rocky hill slopes near the shore. On these the she-bears congregate in close-set masses called "rook eries." The unit of rookery life is the family group, or "harem," each bull collecting as many females as he can control. The num ber ranges from one to 100 or more, averaging about 3o. The bulls reach the islands early in May and take up their places. The cows begin to arrive the first week in June. The number on the rookeries from day to day grows steadily to a climax about the middle of July, when about one-half are present, the number actually on the ground diminishing to about one-fourth at and after the close of the breeding season with the end of July. The single young, or pup (kotik), weighing io to 12 lb. and jet black in colour, is born within six to 48 hours after the arrival of the cow. Within a week the latter is served by the bull, and by the end of another week she goes to sea to feed, returning at gradually lengthening intervals through the summer to nourish her young, left in the meantime to care for itself on the rookeries. The bulls, having fasted since their arrival in May, go away in August to feed. The pups learn to swim at the age of a month or six weeks, and in November, with the approach of winter, swim away with their mothers to the south. The migration of the seals is said to keep fairly well to the ioo fathom line.

Pelagic Sealing.

At first the catch averaged 75,000 per an num, but after about 1868 it increased rapidly, and from 1879 sailing vessels carrying numerous canoes were employed to attack the migrating seals, which were thus deprived of their natural closed season; these vessels at one time exceeded 1 oo in number; some of them carried as many as 25 canoe crews. It has been esti mated that by 1902 a million seals had been taken at sea, and, unfortunately, the breeding females were killed with the rest, to the great detriment of the recuperative powers of the stock. In the Bering sea pelagic sealing indeed well over half the catch was of this class. The greatest catch, however, was always on shore. From the Pribilof and Commander herds nearly 21 million were taken on land between 1868 and 1897.

Land Sealing.

Fortunately, the conduct of the seals on land permits of the catch being made with the least possible at tendant depletion of stock. The young males, or bachelors, "haul out" to rest and sleep on beaches adjacent to, but distinct from, the breeding-grounds. Here they are surrounded at night by the seal ing gangs, rounded up in droves of from I ,000 to 3,000, and driven inland to the killing-grounds. The large droves are broken up into successive "pods," or groups, of from 20 to 50, of which the "killable" seals (animals of three years of age or approximating to such in size) are knocked down with clubs, those too large or too small being allowed to escape. The skins are removed, salted in kenches and, when cured, are exported.

Apart from this degree of economy, however, a long series of enactments have been made for the protection of the seals (and of sealing). A treaty between the British empire. the United States, Russia, and Japan, not, only regulates land sealing in the North Pacific but prohibits pelagic sealing. When this conser vation treaty became effective in 1911 the herd on the Pribilof Islands numbered about 132,00o animals. During the 28 years since, to 1939, about 900,000 skins have been taken under the supervision of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, the take in 1939 being about 60,500 skins. The herd on the Pribilof Islands, during the

summer of 1939, numbered about 2,000.000 animals.

The fur seal (Arctocephalus australis) of the south was once taken at the Galapagos islands, Tierra del Fuego, Lobos islands, and this or other species at South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and many points about the Antarctic circle. In South Georgia and other dependencies of the Falkland islands it was abundant at one time, and was taken before 1793. Sealing and exploration were mutually helpful, much geographical discovery being due to whalers and sealers, while sealing, like whaling, followed ex ploration in other cases. Great numbers of sea leopards (Hydrurga leptonyx), sea elephants (Mirounga leonina), Weddel's seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) and other species were seen by early voyagers, but at first the skins of the fur seals alone seem to have been taken. One of the earliest recorded landings was that of the Argentine ship, "Juan Nepomucena," which brought in 13,000 skins in 182o. In this and the two following years over 90 vessels, roughly equally divided between Great Britain and the United States, worked the southern grounds. In the first season, catches of 18,000 were not unusual, and five British ships took 95,000 seals in all. Seal oil and blubber, particularly from the elephant seal, began to be taken. Weddel estimated that in the two seasons, 182o-21 and 1821-22, 1,200,000 fur seals were taken from South Georgia, and 320,000 from the South Shetlands alone, with 94o tons of elephant seal oil. It is not surprising that the sealing rapidly disappeared. By 1892 sealing vessels sailed from South American ports homeward with mixed cargoes ; and though in the early '9os a Scottish whaling expedition to the Ross sea took 20,000 skins with four ships, by the end of the 19th century the fur seal had almost completely disappeared from the Falk land island dependencies at least. Other seals, sea elephants in particular, had very greatly diminished in number. From 1881 sealing in these territories has been regulated ; close seasons were introduced, and sealing is now only permitted under licences, which may determine both the kind and number of seals taken. The capture of fur seals is prohibited.

The Elephant Seal.

The chief modern sealing of this region, and one which has responded in a satisfactory way to the regula tions which govern it, is that for the elephant seal. This seal is taken by whalers, but pups may not be taken, nor, as far as practicable, female seals—an effort to put into force the same trend of regulation as that followed in northern waters for the fur seals. There is also a close season and closed areas along certain stretches of coast. The absence of segregation of young males on the rookeries is a hindrance to the observance of the regulations. Elephant seals are of great size, the females reaching 8 or 9 ft., and the male sometimes 20 ft. in length. Pairing takes place immediately after the young are born, early in October, and the young, which are born singly, are usually weaned in Novem ber; these circumstances have determined the closed periods enforced. During February and March the large males haul out on the beaches, and are there for some time in good condition, yielding some five or six barrels of oil. In recent years the num ber of seals taken at South Georgia is in the neighbourhood of 3,00o per annum ; there are elephant seals (except sea leopards) which never reach loo, and Weddel's seals, which seldom reach 20 and never 5o.

See H. W. Elliot, "Monograph of the Seal Islands of Alaska," U.S. Fish Commission, Bulletin 147 (1882) ; C. H. Merriam and T. C. Mendenhall, Proc. Paris Arbitration (1891) ; Report of the Inter departmental Committee on Research and Development in the Falk land Island Dependencies (1920) ; Bureau of Fisheries, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries; Annual Reports of the Alaska Division (Washington) ; L. Stejneger, "The Asiatic Fur-Seal Islands and Fur Seal Industry," U.S. Treasury Document 2017,4 (1896-97) ; W. T. Grenfell and others, Labrador (New York, i9o9).