308 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1942 



Islands, fur sealing was never directly supervised by the governments 

 in the Southern Hemisphere during the eighteenth and nineteenth 

 centuries. 



The rookeries on the Uruguayan coast, located for the most part on 

 the Coronilla, the Castillos, the Torres, and the Lobos groups of 

 islands, were leased to commercial sealers beginning in 1823. But 

 here again, reckless commercial exploitation of these rookeries all but 

 exterminated the animals. For the 35 years ending in 1907, the aver- 

 age kill of fur seals was nearly 15,000. In 1910, however, the 

 Uruguayan Government commenced sealing on its own account and 

 at the time of Dr. Hugh M. Smith's visit in December 1922, the rookery 

 in the Lobos Island group was doubtfully estimated to harbor some 

 20,000 fur seals (Smith, 1927, p. 281) . 



Today only a few scattered individuals exist in the entire British 

 Falkland Island Dependency Claim, a relatively small number of 

 individuals have found refuge on the rookeries along the Uruguayan 

 coast, and another small remnant maintains a precarious existence on 

 islands along the coast of Peru. 



No chapter in the story of wanton destruction of wild life contains 

 so many obvious lessons as that of the southern fur seal fishery. It is 

 now apparent that the values destroyed in the avaricious hunt for fur 

 seals were many times greater than the moneys received from the pelts 

 marketed, since the breeding stock that should have been maintained 

 for the future harvesting of the annual surplus was destroyed on every 

 accessible rookery. During tlie period of ruthless exploitation of the 

 southern fur seal rookeries, the principles of wild life management 

 were totally disregarded by the governments concerned, even though 

 certain officials, notably Capt. James Weddell (1827, pp. 141-142), did 

 not hesitate to call attention to the inevitable destruction of this eco- 

 nomic asset if the practices then in vogue were continued. Conserva- 

 tion was either deemed impossible or not worth the effort. 



Had scientific management of the southern fur seal herd been prac- 

 ticed at the inception of exploitation or at least before the rookeries 

 had been seriously depleted, an adequate annual profit would have 

 accrued to all the governments having jurisdiction over such rookeries. 

 The devastating effects of this excessive slaughter have not passed 

 unnoticed, but no serious effort has been made to remedy the existing 

 situation. Nevertheless, it is not too late even today or impractical 

 to attempt the restocking of fur seals on those rookeries, long since 

 abandoned, where adequate patrol and protection can be maintained. 



WHALING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE 



It may appear surprising that whaling in the Southern Hemisphere 

 did not commence until stocks of whales in Arctic waters were mark- 

 edly depleted. One contributing cause was the presence of pirates in 



