subsequently ratified the Protocol; however, the United States 

 did not and the Convention therefore expired. (Additional 

 information on exploitation and efforts to conserve the North 

 Pacific fur seal can be found in Scheffer, V.B., C.H. Fiscus, 

 and E.I. Todd. 1967. History of Scientific Study and Manage- 

 ment of the Alaskan Fur Seal ( Callorhinus ursinus) , 1786-1964; 

 and in the Department of Commerce's Final Environmental Impact 

 Statement on the Interim Convention on Conservation of North 

 Pacific Fur Seals, February 1985.) 



Population Status 



Before commercial exploitation began in the 1700s, the 

 Pribilof Islands fur seal population is estimated to have 

 numbered between 2 and 2.5 million animals, of which 1.6-2.0 

 million animals (about 80 percent) were on St. Paul Island. 

 By 1912, combined pelagic and on-land harvesting had reduced 

 the Pribilof Islands population to about 300,000 animals. 

 Under protection provided by the Fur Seal Treaty of 1911, the 

 population recovered and, by the early 1950s, probably was at 

 or near its pre-exploitation level. In the late 1950s, it 

 was concluded, on theoretical grounds, that the population 

 was too large to produce the maximum yield of skins. Therefore, 

 from 1956 through 1962, a number of females, as well as males, 

 were harvested to reduce the population and increase pupping 

 rates. Between 1963 and 1968, an effort was made to stabilize 

 the population by harvesting only females believed to be in 

 excess of the number needed to maintain a stable population. 



As a result of the female harvest, the St. Paul Island 

 fur seal population decreased from about 1.8 million in the 

 early 1950s to about 930,000 in 1970. The commercial harvest 

 of females was halted in 1968 and by 1975 the St. Paul Island 

 population had increased to about 1.1 million. However, the 

 population subsequently declined and by 1979 numbered about 

 990,000 animals. The breeding colonies on St. George Island 

 also declined during this period even though commercial har- 

 vesting there was stopped in 1973 in an experimental effort 

 to assess the effects of harvesting on population growth and 

 age/sex structure. The Pribilof population continued to decline 

 through at least the mid-1980s and, at present, the combined 

 St. Paul and St. George Islands populations are estimated at 

 800,000 animals. 



The Pribilof Islands fur seal population is currently 

 about 40 percent of the estimated population size prior to 

 exploitation and after recovery in the early 1950s, and the 

 decline may be continuing. Thus, in 1984, 1985, and 1986, 

 the Marine Mammal Commission recommended that the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service formally designate the Pribilof 

 Islands stock of North Pacific fur seals as depleted under 

 the Marine Mammal Protection Act (see the Commission's previous 



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