FUR SEALS AND OTHER LIFE, PRIBILOF ISLANDS, 1914. IO3 



Without attempting to interpret these sections of the treaty, it may be stated 

 that a number of American experts and officials, both scientific and legal, have expressed 

 the opinion that the right to suspend land sealing depends upon the need of the herd 

 for protection and that unless this need can be demonstrated land sealing should go 

 on under no limitation except that required for the preservation and growth of the 

 herd. If this opinion be sound, the important question is. Does the herd need pro- 

 tection to the extent of continued suspension of land killing? Even assuming to the 

 full that the herd did need protection when the law of 191 2 was enacted, this nevertheless 

 does not relieve us from the obligation of demonstrating that it still needs it now after 

 three seasons without commercial sealing. No such necessity can be demonstrated. 

 The condition of the seal herd in 1914, as set forth in this report, is such that resumption 

 of commercial sealing on a moderate scale in 1915 could be undertaken with confidence 

 that the protection and growth of the herd would not be jeopardized in the slightest 

 degree. The inference is clear, therefore, that unless sealing be resumed agitation will 

 be continued and the integrity of a most desirable treaty endangered. 



EARLY SOLUTION OF PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IMPORTANT. 



At the time the law of 191 2 was enacted, there were certain important practical 

 problems regarding the seals which hitherto had remained unsolved owing to the 

 existence of pelagic sealing. The treaty of 191 1 had abolished this form of sealing, 

 opening the way for the solution of these problems. The law, however, was and still is 

 an effectual bar to the elucidation of these vital matters. The principal points to be 

 determined as prerequisites of sound and systematic management relate to distinguishing 

 seals of different ages and to ascertaining the number or proportion of males that 

 naturally survive to the age of 3 years, these forming the class from which both killings 

 and breeding reser\-es are drawn. As shown elsewhere, the conditions for obtaining 

 this information will be particularly favorable in 1 9 1 5 . The number of pups bom in 1 9 1 2 

 is known, and certain of these which will appear as 3-year-olds in 1915 carry permanent 

 brands which will greatly facilitate the confining of killing and reser\-ing to that class. 

 Therefore, it would be possible to determine fully the characteristics of the 3-year-olds 

 as a standard for future use; and by setting aside a liberal breeding reserve and killing 

 the remainder the total stock remaining from the pups bom in 191 2 would be learned. 

 Such favorable conditions could not be obtained again until 191 8 and then only by 

 repeating in 191 5 the branding of pups which was carried out at considerable labor and 

 expense in 191 2. Therefore it is highly desirable that the work be done in 191 5. 



GFIADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF EFFICIENCY NECESSARY. 



The long-continued ravages of pelagic sealing and the pubhcity which they gained 

 during the protracted agitation against it, combined with charges of excessive land 

 killing and the undisputed fact that the seal herd was reduced to a fraction of its former 

 size, produced a general impression that the number of seals remaining was only a mere 

 handful, or in fact that the herd was on the very verge of extinction. The total sus- 

 pension of commercial killing by the law of 191 2 has added to this impression and cir- 

 cumstances have caused an interruption and abandonment of continuous policies, a 

 reduced and partly temporary personnel, and general conditions favoring inaction only 



