North Pacific Fur Seal (Callorhinus ursinus) 



North Pacific fur seals occur seasonally in waters 

 throughout the rim of the North Pacific Ocean. Most pupping 

 and breeding occurs on Robben Island in the Okhotsk Sea, the 

 Kurile Islands in the western North Pacific, the Commander 

 Islands in the western Bering Sea, and the Pribilof Islands 

 in the eastern Bering Sea. New pupping and breeding colonies 

 became established on San Miguel Island off southern California 

 in the late 1960s and early 1970s and, more recently, on 

 Bogoslof Island in the Aleutian chain. 



Commercial exploitation of North Pacific fur seals began 

 in the 1700s when the species' pupping and breeding sites 

 were first discovered. The Pribilof Islands' population, 

 which historically has represented about three-fourths of the 

 total number of North Pacific fur seals, is estimated at that 

 time to have numbered between 2 and 2.5 million animals. 

 Except for brief periods in the early 1800s, between 1912 and 

 1916, and in 1942, commercial harvests were conducted annually 

 until 1985. 



Between the late 1800s and 1911, sealing was conducted 

 both on land and at sea. During this period, the fur seal 

 population declined in size, and by the end of the first 

 decade of the 1900s, the number of fur seals on the Pribilof 

 Islands is estimated to have been about 300,000 animals. In 

 response, nations involved in commercial fur seal harvests 

 signed the Fur Seal Treaty of 1911. The Treaty imposed a ban 

 on pelagic sealing and directly regulated the land-based 

 harvest, which was limited to male seals. Under the new 

 management system, the fur seal population recovered to levels 

 approaching its pre-exploitation stock size by the 1940s. 

 The Treaty expired, however, in 1941 after Japan withdrew 

 from the Agreement. 



From 1941 to 1957, fur seal harvests on the Pribilof 

 Islands were governed by a provisional agreement between the 

 United States and Canada. During that period, the size of 

 the Pribilof Islands' fur seal population remained relatively 

 stable at an estimated 2.2 million animals. In 1957, the 

 Governments of Canada, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United 

 States concluded an Interim Convention on the Conservation of 

 North Pacific Fur Seals. The purpose of the Convention was 

 to bring the North Pacific fur seal herd to the level that 

 would provide the greatest harvest year after year, with due 

 regard for the productivity of other living marine resources. 

 The Interim Convention was extended by a series of Protocols 

 adopted in 1963, 1969, 1976, and 1981. 



Under these management arrangements, an experimental 

 harvest of female, as well as male, seals was undertaken on 



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