THE SEA FISHERIES 291 



while men stand by with sharp knives to part it cleanly 

 from the meat. 



WTien fishing in distant regions where it is not possible 

 to establish a shore factory, large vessels are used capable 

 of performing the final operations on board. The ships 

 generally anchor in some sheltered bay and form a base 

 for their attendant whale catchers to work from : the 

 whales are here drawn up on to the shore to be cut up. 



Recently an experiment has been tried of employing a 

 ship specially fitted with a slip-way through which the 

 whole whale may be hauled through the stem and stripped 

 and cut up on board. Such a ship can do all the factory 

 work at sea and follow its own whale catchers from place 

 to place. 



Seal Fisheries 



Almost all species of seals are of commercial value for 

 their hides and blubber, but the most important by far 

 are the sea-bears or fur-seals whose warm furs maintain 

 the sealskin industry. 



Like the whale, seals have been wantonly massacred by 

 the hand of man and in many parts of the world they 

 have been hunted to the verge of extinction. At one 

 time the great herds of the Antarctic exceeded those in any 

 other region, but now they have been reduced to only a few 

 numbers. 



At the present day the chief sealing grounds are in the 



Behring Sea on the Pribylov and the Commander Islands. 



Although originally these seal herds which numbered 



several million individuals suffered considerable depletions, 



the Russians by whom they were exploited showed great 



forethought. Knowing that the seal was a polygamous 



creature they took great care to save the female population 



and killed off only the superfluous males. These seal 



u 



