subsistence purposes. Most pupping and breeding occur on Robben 

 Island, the Kurile Islands, and the Commander Islands in the 

 Soviet Union and on the Pribilof Islands in United States. 



The Pribilof Islands' fur seal population, which 

 historically has constituted about three-fourths of the total 

 number of northern fur seals, is estimated to have numbered 

 between 2 and 2.5 million animals when the Pribilof Islands were 

 first discovered in 1786. Although the number of fur seals on 

 the islands has fluctuated widely since then as a result of 

 changing sealing practices, the population size was estimated to 

 have been at that level as recently as the 1950s. Over the past 

 three decades, the number of seals on the Pribilof Islands has 

 declined significantly for uncertain reasons that possibly 

 include entanglement in lost and discarded nets and other marine 

 debris, disease, change in prey availability, or other causes. 

 Recent estimates place the number of seals on the islands at 

 about 800,000 animals. A similar decline appears to be occurring 

 at Robben Island in the Soviet Union. 



As noted in previous Annual Reports, the nations involved in 

 commercial fur seal harvests have managed fur seal herds under a 

 series of international agreements during most of the 20th 

 century. Between 1957 and 1984, northern fur seals were managed 

 cooperatively by the Governments of Canada, Japan, the Soviet 

 Union, and the United States under provisions of the Interim 

 Convention on the Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals. The 

 Interim Convention, which was extended four times during that 

 period, sought 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 Convention lapsed in 1984 when the United States did not 

 ratify a protocol to extend the Convention for an additional 

 four-year period. As a result, management authority in the 

 United States became subject to domestic laws, including the 

 Marine Mammal Protection Act. Among other things, the Act 

 precludes commercial harvesting, unless the Act's moratorium on 

 taking is waived, and provides for subsistence harvests by 

 Natives of the Pribilof Islands. Since 1984, directed taking of 

 fur seals in the United States has been limited to Native 

 subsistence harvesting. 



The 1989 Subsistence Harvest 



Until 1984, Alaska Natives on the Pribilof Islands relied on 

 meat and other by-products from the commercial seal harvest to 

 meet subsistence needs. Beginning in 1985, Native residents have 

 conducted directed subsistence harvests governed by regulations 

 issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service under authority 

 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Fur Seal Act. 



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