ALASKA FISHERY AND FUR-SEAL INDUSTRIES, 1927 143 



FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY 



PRIBILOF ISLANDS 

 GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE WORK 



In the calendar j^ear 1927, 24,942 fur-seal skins were taken on the 

 Pribilof Islands, of which 19,000 were from St. Paul Island and 5,942 

 from St. George Island. Nine thousand three hundred and eighty- 

 three of the skins taken on St. Paul Island were blubbered there. 

 A suitable number (9,090) of 3-year-old male seals were marked and 

 reserved from killing in order that they might pass into the general 

 breeding stock. As m previous years, attention was given to the 

 feeding and general supervision of the foxes on St. Paul and St. George 

 Islands. 



Progress was made on the construction of new buildings for the 

 natives and for the general purposes of the stations ; progress also was 

 made on new roads. The presence of ice about St. Paul Island until 

 unusually late in the spring made it impossible to land temporary 

 laborers as early as planned, with the result that construction work 

 was retarded. 



The Navy Department detailed the U. S. S. Vega to transport the 

 general annual shipment of supplies from Seattle to the Pribilof 

 Islands. Small quantities of freight were transported by commercial 

 vessels and by the bureau's power schooner Eider. 



The United States Coast Guard maintained a patrol in Bering Sea 

 and other waters of the North Pacific for the protection of the Pribilof 

 Islands fur-seal herd. In connection with this patrol the Coast Guard 

 cooperated with the bureau in the work at the Pribilof Islands. 



The United States' share of sealskins taken b}'' the Japanese Govern- 

 ment in 1926 was delivered to the bureau. Great Britam and Japan 

 continued the practice of having their shares of Pribilof Islands fur- 

 seal skins sold by the United States. 



PURCHASE AND TRANSPORTATION OF SUPPLIES 



In 1927 the general supplies for the Pribilof Islands and for the 

 power schooner Eider were transported by the U. S. S. Vega, departure 

 from Seattle occurring on July 22. The stores for the Eider, con- 

 sisting of about 41 tons of general supplies and 25 tons of coal, were 

 discharged at Dutch Harbor. The Vega reached the Pribilof Islands 

 on July 30, where approxmiately 842 tons of general supplies, 950 tons 

 of coal, and 372,000 feet of lumber were discharged. After taking 

 aboard the fur-seal and fox skins then ready for shipment and some 

 miscellaneous freight the Vega left the Pribilofs on August 18 and 

 arrived at Bremerton, Wash., on August 25. 



About 24 tons of supplies, chiefly perishable foodstuffs, for the 

 Pribilof Islands and the Eider, were forwarded from Seattle on the 

 S. S. Victoria on May 10 for dehvery at Akutan. Another shipment 

 of approximately 48 tons, consistmg of perishable food supplies and 

 certain emergency items for the Pribilof Islands and the Eider, was 

 made at Seattle on October 11 on the S. S. Alameda for delivery at 

 Unalaska. The Eider completed delivery of these supplementary 

 shipments at the Pribilof Islands. 



