REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CXLIX 



products as yet i)ractically unknown there. It is believed that many 

 of the lower-priced fishery products of the United States would find 

 a market in Puerto Rico if cured and packed with reference to the 

 climatic conditions prevailing there. The local fisheries were found to 

 yield many species of edible fishes, but are not conducted very actively. 

 The catch ia mostly consumed fresh, almost no refrigeration or other 

 methods of preservation being emj)loyed. Fishing for local use is con- 

 ducted about most parts of the island. 



The principal fishing appliances in use are haul seines, cast nets, 

 trolling lines, and fish pots or traps. All appliances at present are 

 home made, but it is believed that there is a field for the introduction 

 of manufactured netting. The boats in the home fisheries are all of the 

 small size characteristic of shore fisheries. The total number of profes- 

 sional and semiprofessional fishermen appears to be about 800, the sail 

 and row boats used in fishing numbering about 350. With better trans- 

 portation and better facilities for refrigeration there would probably 

 be considerable development of the local fisheries. 



INSPECTION OF PRIBILOF SEAL ROOKERIES. 



In July and August, 1898, Mr. Townsend made an inspection of the 

 Pribilof Island seal rookeries, transportation having been furnished on 

 the U. 8. S. Wheeling, by direction of the Secretary of the Navy. It was 

 found, by counting all of the seals born on certain rookeries during 

 the season that the seal herd had decreased 2'2 per cent since 1897. 

 Some of the smaller rookeries have been counted in this way for several 

 years in succession, and the diminution of the herd — due to pelagic 

 sealing — is thus quite accurately gauged. The decrease on St. George 

 Island, where the rookeries average smaller than on St. Paul Island, 

 was especially noticeable, and all of the seals born on that island were 

 counted without difficulty. The total number of pup seals on St. 

 George Island was found to be 17,820, and the number counted on six 

 of the smaller rookeries of St. Paul Island was 13,001. As the larger 

 rookeries diminish and become of such size that the young seals on 

 them can be counted, they are added from time to time to the series of 

 rookeries included in the annual counts of pups — the only class of seals 

 readily available for enumeration. 



The rate of diminution from season to season indicates that it will 

 not be long before we shall be able to state the actual number of seals 

 born each year. Such conditions indicate forcibly the reduced size of 

 the herd. The number of surplus male seals killed on the Pribilof 

 Islands under the supervision of the United States Government was 

 18,032. This surplus, available for killing without interfering with the 

 breeding stock, grows smaller from year to year. For about twenty 

 years, prior to the expansion of the pelagic sealing industry, the number 

 of surplus males annually placed on the market was 100,000. The 

 total pelagic catch from the American seal herd during the year was 

 28,142 seals. Pelagic sealing was engaged in by 35 Canadian vessels, 

 17,390 seals being killed in Bering Sea in waters adjacent to the 



