678 -A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



The death knell has sounded for many North American mammals. The pic- 

 ture, however dark, is not quite one of such despair as many like to indicate. Much 

 of the destruction of this natural heritage has been due to ignorance and thought- 

 lessness. It will be appropriate to consider some of our native mammals whose 

 threatened extinction a few decades ago was of grave concern to the American 

 public. 



Few stories are more impressive in conservation history than that of our fur 

 seals. The ravishment of the great herds had been carried on for nearly a century 

 and a half when the Russian navigator, Gerassim Pribiloff, discovered, in 1786, 

 the islands that bear his name. In that year, probably 4,000,000 seals occupied 

 the rocky shores during the spring and summer months. Pelagic hunting by fish- 

 ermen of Canada, the United States, and Japan had resulted in such reduction 

 and waste that by 1910 not more than 130,000 animals remained of the former 

 millions. In 1911, a treaty between Russia, Japan, Great Britain, and the United 

 States put an end to pelagic sealing, and our country, owning the islands, as- 

 sumed management of all sealing operations. A quarter-century later, the herds 

 totaled 3,600,000 animals. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel cooperate with 

 the Fouke Fur Company in handling the seal harvest. The animals are driven 

 from their rocky hauling grounds to the flat tundra, where groups of immature 

 males are cut out and the remainder allowed to return to the sea. The number 

 annually killed is based on the size of the herd. The increasing returns from the 

 sale of pelts (60,000 to 70,000 annually) and by-products has provided the gov- 

 ernment with a growing profit and at the same time assured a livelihood to the 

 natives of these lonely shores. 



The exploitation of the great whales followed a pattern of many another 

 natural resource. In the early years of the past century, whaling was confined 

 largely to coastal waters. Later the whalers ventured on all of the oceans of the 

 world; the United States owes much to the intrepidity and fearlessness of the 

 hardy whaling masters who first carried the American flag into new and little 

 explored corners of the world. The decline in the number of whales has been evi- 

 dent for many years, but improved methods of hunting and handling the catch 

 of whales and the utilization of by-products make whaling still profitable to those 

 engaged in the industry. The fleet of vessels and floating refineries returning from 

 the South Seas in 1930 brought the largest cargoes of sperm oil ever loaded. 

 These whales were located and reported by wireless-equipped aircraft and killed 

 by electric harpoons. It is fortunate that the leaders in the whaling trade are 

 cooperating in an effort to obtain data on these cetaceans which will be helpful in 

 evaluating the biological factors involved. 



At the turn of the century, whalers began operating in the Antarctic Ocean, 

 the last great unexploited area. In the early 'thirties the League of Nations called 

 together a committee to consider international regulation of the whaling industry. 

 Since this action, several international conventions have set forth regulations for 

 whaling, the first in 1932 and another in 1937, upon which, with subsequent 

 protocols and agreements, the present whaling regulations are chiefly based. These 

 regulations prescribe seasons for whaling, establish the minimum legal size of 

 each species, and prohibit the killing of females accompanied by calves, and of 

 any whales of certain species. The regulations also require the fullest possible 



