ALASKA FISHERY AND FUR-SEAL INDUSTRIES, 1935 65 



reached San Diego on August 27 in excellent condition. While on 

 the vessel they were fed frozen herring, but no food was supplied for 

 the trip from Seattle to San Diego. Ice in gunny sacks on top of the 

 crates kept the animals cool on the journey by train. At the zoo the 

 seals were placed in specially constructed pools, with plenty of 

 shade, and at the close of the year all seemed to be thriving. 



Several shipments of fur seals from the Pribilof Islands have been 

 forwarded previously from time to time — the most recent being those 

 in 1928 to the Steinhart Aquarium, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 

 and to the National Zoological Park, Washington, D. C, and in 1932 

 to the latter place. The average life of the animals, however, has 

 been comparatively short, and none of the seals that were formerly 

 shipped now survives. The seals at San Diego, therefore, are the 

 only living specimens of Alaska fur seal in captivity. 



COMPUTATION OF FUR SEALS, PRIBILOF ISLANDS, 1935 



By Harry J. Christoffers 



The number of seals available for commercial killing at the Pribilof 

 Islands showed a satisfactory increase in the season of 1935. There 

 were 54,890 classed as 3-year-old males killed, as compared with 

 51,935 in 1934. The number of 3-year-olds in ckives continued to 

 increase until July 7, after w^hich there was a gradual reduction. At 

 first it was thought that it would be advisable to discontinue killing 

 about July 25, but as the season advanced it was apparent that 

 sufficient 3-year-old males were arriving to permit continuing the 

 killing season until the last of the month without detriment to the herd. 



The large number of 3-year-old males in drives during the last few 

 days of July showed plainly that an ample reserve of tliis age class 

 remained for breeding requirements. Further evidence of this was 

 seen in the numbers which continued to arrive after commercial killing 

 ceased. There were also plenty of mature young bulls on hand to 

 answer requirements of the 2-year-old females arriving in early August. 

 These bulls appeared to be in excellent condition. 



In order to ascertain whether sufficient males have been reserved 

 for breeding requirements it is necessary to make a count, or as close 

 an estimate as possible, of the number of bulls and cows arriving at 

 the islands each season. Previously used methods of estimating the 

 number of cows and counting as closely as possible the number of 

 breeding males were continued this season. 



Breeding areas on the various rookeries continued to expand. W^here 

 the hauling grounds are witliin the rookery areas the bachelors now 

 have a hard time working through the harems on account of the 

 numerous breeding bulls. This is particularly true of Reef and Gor- 

 batch rookeries on St. Paul Island and of North rookery on St. George 

 Island. For this reason drives from these rookeries are decreasing in 

 size and drives from rookeries where hauling grounds are adjacent to 

 breeding areas are increasing in size. It soon will be impossible during 

 the height of the season for bachelors to haul out at all on the present 

 Reef and Gorbatch hauling grounds. Presumably they will eventually 

 haul out on Zoltoi sands, adjacent to Gorbatch rookery. In early 

 sealing days all drives were made from Zoltoi. When Zoltoi again 

 becomes the hauling ground for Reef and Gorbatch it will be a great 



