THE GREAT MARINE VERTEBRATES 425 



THE CONSERVATION OF THE GREAT MARINE VERTE- 

 BRATES: IMMINENT DESTRUCTION OF THE 

 WEALTH OF THE SEAS 



By G. R. WIELAND, Ph.D. 



OP THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON AND YALE UNIVERSITY J MEMBER OF THE 

 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGISTS 



THE rapidity with which our large wild animals are being destroyed 

 at the present time is scarcely realized, to say nothing of the 

 threatened introduction of a noiseless gun. Because this or that spe- 

 cies is usually considered by itself, it is not generally noted that in the 

 aggregate there is scarcely a single feral form large enough to attract 

 the bullet of the hunter but is foredoomed to speedy extermination if 

 a public sentiment mighty to save is not soon aroused ; and such senti- 

 ment must cross and recross political boundaries, must be world-wide, 

 to be wholly effective. 



Much has been said about the preservation of various birds and 

 land mammals; but with the exception of the seal, the passing of the 

 great animals of the sea provokes little comment. Indeed, their pro- 

 tection or conservation is commonly deemed impossible or not worth 

 the while, it being invariably overlooked that not a single great animal 

 of the sea, unless of extreme rarity like some of the gigantic cuttle- 

 fishes, is without a large economic value, and thus always sooner or 

 later the object of an exterminating hunt. Much less is the zoologic 

 value considered — that intrinsic side which passes far beyond more 

 obvious utility into the domain of the philosophic, and lends to sea and 

 land a mighty charm. 



Contrariwise, students of animal history and distribution, and more 

 especially those who go back and study the fossil record as well, can 

 not fail to observe with alarm the unremitting warfare against all the 

 animal kind, that, extending far into the prehistoric period to the great 

 land turtles and moas, has with the exploration of the remote places 

 of the earth and the arming of every savage tribe with modern weapons, 

 become a heedless debacle. It is therefore simply in the performance 

 of a plain every-day duty that in recent annual mid-winter meetings 

 of various scientific societies there has been brought forward for discus- 

 sion, on a broad basis, the question of animal conservation on a large 

 scale. We may especially cite the resolution passed unanimously by 

 the American Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists at New Haven, 

 as follows: 



