REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. LXXXIX 



The habits of these animals during the period of their residence on 

 the Pribilof Islands have been studied with considerable care, and upon 

 the knowledge thus obtained has been based a judicious system of 

 regulations, not entirely perfect, perhaps, but which, if properly carried 

 out, could not fail to insure the perpetuation of the herd. Whatever 

 abuses may have been practiced on those islands, they could have 

 produced little or no effect upon the main or breeding parts of the 

 rookeries, as the supply of skins was drawn entirely from the so-called 

 hauling-grounds, which are occupied solely by the bachelors or non- 

 breeding males. The marked decrease on thebreediiig-giounds, begin- 

 ning only a few years ago, was evidently due to some influence from 

 without, and its cause was not difficult to discover. An interference 

 of this character with the seal fishery had never been anticipated by 

 the Government of the United States, and no steps had been taken, 

 therefore, to investigate the conditions associated with the movements 

 of this highly prized species during its long wanderings in the open 

 sea. Whether the possession of such information would have helped to 

 avert the injury which is now being done or not, it would at least have 

 greatly strengthened this Government in its efforts to obtain a just 

 recognition of its claims, and it is therefore greatly to be deplored 

 that the work was left until its urgency was demonstrated by force of 

 circumstances. 



In view of the material interests involved, a somewhat heated con- 

 troversy could not be avoided betweesi the two countries whose sub- 

 jects claimed protection in Avhat they regarded, on each side, as their 

 respective rights. On the one side there was a long-established indus- 

 try, whose continuity need not be broken except by unwise administra- 

 tion, while on the otlier there was a young and enterprising fishery, 

 gaining strength every season, and bound eventually not only to sap its 

 own resources, but to destroy the rookeries as well. This was practi- 

 cally the status of the fur-seal question when arbitration was suggested 

 and agreed upon, a modus vivendi prohibiting pelagic sealing in Bering- 

 Sea being arranged for at the same time. It was now too late to begin a 

 systematic and thorough study of the entire subject, which, under suit- 

 able conditions, would have been productive of much more satisfactory 

 and convincing results, and provision was made for investigating only 

 the more salient features of the problem, on which there Avas a wide 

 diversity of opinion between the British and American represeatatives. 



Three vessels were assigned to this duty, the Fish Commission 

 steamer Albatross and the revenue steamers Gorwin and Bear. The 

 cruising-ground of the Albatross, up to the close of the fiscal year, 

 was mainly off the southern side of the Alaska Peninsula and along 

 the Aleutian chain, from Prince William Sound, in the east, to Attn 

 Island and to the Commander Islands, off the Siberian coast. The 

 representations made on the part of Great Britain that the eastern 

 body of fur seals has other hauling-grounds than the Pribilof Islands 

 were disproved, and the entire weight of the evidence obtained tends 



