510 ALASKAN HERD 



this immense drain on the herds can be continued without a very 

 rapid decrease in their numbers, and which practically means exter- 

 mination within a very few years. If the seals are to be saved there 

 must be no killing at any time in the waters of Bering Sea, and it is 

 also very important for their preservation that no females be killed in 

 the Noi th Pacific. They must be protected in both of these waters or 

 they will be exterminated. 



Knowing that pelagic hunting is the cause of the decrease in fur-seal 

 life, we are in favor of its entire and absolute sup- 

 ^ Vassili ChicMnoff etal., pression aml prohibition in order that said fur- 

 seal life may be saved from extermination. 



Peter Church, p. 257. I think all pelagic sealing should be stopped, so 



that seal would have a chance to increase. 



Jno. 0. clement, p. 258. And if pelagic sealing was stopped altogether, 

 the seal would then become plentiful. 



After twenty-two years' experience in Alaska in the fur business I 

 have no hesitation in saying that if the fur-seal 

 M. Cohen, p. 225. species is to be saved from extinction all pelagic 



seal-hunting must cease, as it is absolutely neces- 

 sary that the female fur seal should be allowed access to a rookery in 

 order safely to deliver her young. 



Upon the amount of protection depends the safety of the seal herd in 

 the future. If protected only upon the Pribilof 



jr. H. DeiU,p. 24. Islands extermination will be rapid; if they are 



protected upon the islands and in the waters of 

 Bering Sea also the decrease will be slower, but ultimate extinction 

 will probably follow. To preserve them completely it is necessary that 

 they should be protected in all waters, which they frequent at all times. 

 Killing upon land can be regulated and interference with the females 

 rigidly prohibited, but all killing at sea is indiscriminate and uncon- 

 trollable, and hence fatal in its consequences if carried on to any serious 

 extent. Regarded as a factor in the world's commerce, extinction 

 means, and is here used to mean, a diminution so great that the catch 

 would not pay for hunting, without reference to the fact that a few 

 scattered individuals may long survive the general mass. 



iv>n. rosier, p. 221. In my opinion, in order to preserve the fur-seals, 



all pelagic sealing should be stopped. 



Deponent further says that in his judgment the absolute prohibition 

 of pelagic sealing, i. c, the killing of seals in the- 



Alfred Fr asm; p. 557. open sea, whether in the North Pacific or the 

 Bering Sea, is necessary to the preservation of the 

 seal herds now surviving, by reason of the fact that most of the females 

 so killed are heavy with young, and that necessarily the increase of the 

 species is diminished by their killing. And further, from the fact that 

 a large number of females are killed in the Bering Sea while on the 

 search for food after the birth of their young, and that in consequence 

 thereof the pups die for want of nourishment. Deponent has no per- 

 sonal knowledge of the truth of this statement, but he has information 

 in respect of the same from persons who have been on the Pribilof Is- 



