24 ORAL ARGUMENT OP .TAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 



There Tvere IdllcMT this year, so far, from 40,000 to 50,000 fur-seals, whioli have been 

 talceii by scliooncrs from San Francisco and Victoiia. 'J'he greater number were 

 killed in Behiinj; Sea, and were nearly all cows or female seals. This enormous catch, 

 with the increase which will take place wlicii the vessels fitting up every year are 

 ready, will I am alVaiil, soon deplete our fur-seal fishery, and it is a great i)ity that 

 such a valuable industry could not in some way be ])rotected. (Report of Thomas 

 Mowat, inspector of fisheries for British Columbia; Sessional Papers, Vol. 15, No. 16, 

 p. 268; Ottawa, 1887.) 



The only way of obviating the lamentable result above predicted appears to be by 

 the United States, Great Britain, and other interested powers taking concerted action 

 to prevent their citizens or subjects from killing lur-scals with firearms, or other 

 destructive weapons, north of 50"^ of north latitude, and between 160*^ of longitude 

 Avest and 170 " of longitude east from Greenwich, during the period intervening 

 between April 15 and November 1. 



Tlie area tluis described by Mr. Bayard is that between the IGOth 

 degfree of loiio-itude West and 170 of loni^itnde East from Greenwich. 

 Here is h^ni;itude 170 (indicating on map) East, and here is ](>n,!j:itiide 

 100 West. Tliere is the riOtli deiiree of latitnde. It is, therefore, from 

 this point 170 Efist to H'A) West (indicating- on map). x\ll ^orth of tliat 

 parallel of 50 degrees of latitnde, and between 100 East and 170 West 

 longitnde, was the pro})osed area of exclnsion, thns inclnding the whole 

 of Behriiig Sea, substantially, and a considerable part of the North 

 Pacific Ocean south of J>eliring !Sea. 



Sir Charles Kussell. That will exclude, I think, the Commander 

 Islands? 



Mr. Carter. Apparently it would exclude the Commander Islands. 



To ]ire\ent the killing within a marine belt of 40 or 50 miles from the islands 

 during that ])eriod would be inetfectu:il as a preservative nu'asure. This would 

 clearly be so <luring the approach of the seals to the islands. And after their arrival 

 there such a limit of protection v.'ould also be insufficieiit, since the rapid progress of 

 the seals through the water enables them tf> go great distances from the islands in so 

 short a time that it has been calculated that an oidinary seal ('oiild go to the Aleutian 

 Islands and Ijac k, in all a distance of 360 or 400 miles, in less than two days. 



On the I'rildlof Islands themselves, where the killing is at present under the 

 direction of the Alaska Commercial Compjiny, whicli by the teims of its contract is 

 not permitted to take over 100,000 skins a year, no females, pu])S, or old bulls are 

 ever killed, and thus the breeding of the animals is not interfered with. The old 

 bulls are the first to reach the islands, where they await the coming of the females. 

 As the young bulls arrive they are driven away by the obi bulls to the sandy part 

 of the islands, by themselses. And these are the animals that are driven inland and 

 there killed by clubbing, so that the skins are not perforated, and discrimination is 

 exercised in each case. 



That the extermination of the fur-seals must soon take place unless they are pro- 

 tected from destruction in Behring Sea is shown by the fate of the animal in other 

 parts of the world, in the absence of concerted action among ihe nations interested 

 for its preservation. P^'ormerly many thousands of seals were obtained annually 

 from the South Pacific Islands, and from the coasts of Chile and South Africa. They 

 were also conunon in the Falkland Islands and the adjacent seas. But in those 

 islands, where hundreds of thousands of skins were formerly obtained, there have 

 been taken, according to best statistics, since 1880, less than 1,500 skins. In some 

 places the indiscriminate slaughter, especially by use of firearms, has in a few years 

 resulted in completely ))reaking up extensive rookeries. 



At the present time it is estimated that out of an aggregate yearly yield of 185,000 

 seals from all parts of tiie globe, over 130,000, or more than two-thirds are obtained 

 from the rookeries on the American and Russian islands in Behring Sea. Of the 

 remainder, the larger part are taken in Behring Sea, although such taking, at least 

 on such a scale, in that quarter is a comjiaratively recent thing. But if the killing 

 of the fur-seal there with firearms, nets, and other destructive implements were 

 permitted, hunters would abandon other and exhausted places of pursuit for the 

 more productive field of Behring Sea, where extermination of this valuable animal 

 would also rapidly ensue. 



It is manifestly for the interests of all nations that so deplorable a thing should 

 not be allowed to occur. As has alread> been stated, on the Pribilof Islands this 

 Government strictly limits the number of seals that ma> l)e killed under its own 

 lease to an American company; and citizens of the United States have, during the 

 past year, been arrested and ten American vessels seized for killing fur seals in 

 Behring Sea. 



