REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 169 



The female skins were also to be distingaislied by the superior fine- 

 ness of the fur, aud by its being thinner on the " Hanks " or under part 

 than on the back. 



(E.) — Future of the Indtistry. 



654. As to the probable future of pelagic sealing, which as at present 

 practised has not been in existence for much more than twenty years ; — 

 like any other industry depending on the continued existence in suita- 

 ble numbers of the animal upon which it is based, this may easily be 

 overdone. The regulations under which the slaughter of fur-seals on 

 the Pribyloff Islands has been carried on for the i)ast twenty years or 

 more have on the average been such as to require killing there to be 

 pushed to and beyond the maximum figure which the seal life frequenting 

 these islands could afibrd, without showing eviden(;esof rapid clecrease. 

 The arrangements have been, in fact, so framed as to make the lessees 

 of the Pribylolf Islands as far as ])ossible the sole beneficiaries of the 

 entire eastern side of the North Pacific, under the belief, that by the 

 possession of the breeding islands it was ])0ssib]e to monopolize the 

 industry. The methods upon the islands had themselves resulted in 

 decrease when the growth of the independent industry of pelagic sealing 

 began still farther to alfect seal life, and, as else^f here shown, co-operated 

 in producing a decrease at a more rapid rate in late years. 



655. The hypothetical question may here be put: If all killing should 

 be stopped upon the breeding islands, and the x>clagic industry be left 

 untrammelled by regulations on the high seas, what would be the ulti- 

 mate effect on seal lii'e? Experience directly obtained with reference 

 to the fur-seal is here entirely wanting. The history of all the depleted 

 breeding places of other parts of the world clearly points to a single 

 cause of damage, viz., unrestricted and barbarous killing on shore upon 

 the breeding grounds. Analogy with the history of other maritime 

 industries, such as those conducted for ordinary food fishes, becomes, 

 however, in the case supposed, directly apposite. Employing such 

 analogies, it may be affirmed that so long as the industry continues to 

 be profitable, a greater number of vessels will each year be employed 

 in it; but that before long a x)oint will be reached at which, in conse- 

 quence of the greater comi)etition, the ever-increasing wariness of the 

 seal, and a reduction in total numbers, — the profits will diminish, unre- 

 nuinerative voyages will frequently be made, and a reaction will occur 

 such as to allow a renewed increase of the animal. Such an automatic 

 principle of regulation appears to be necessarily inherent in the seal 

 fishery as in other fisheries, but Just what the average annual catch 

 might number when this particular fishery reached its level of stability, 

 it is of course impossible to say. It is not likely, however, that it 

 would show a continued decline so serious as that which has affected 

 the whale fishery, for this is due to special causes which are well known; 

 and, under the conditions which have been assumed for the fur-seal fish- 

 ery, the breeding places of the animal would be continuously exempted 



from attack. 

 114 656. One of the.most obvious and generally applicable methods 



of controlling pelagic sealing would be the general adoption of 

 rules against the employment of specially destructive methods, aud such 

 rules might be arranged by international consent as applicable to cer- 

 tain defined tracts of the high seas, in the manner which has been 

 advocated in connection with the subject of the "purse" seine in the 

 mackerel fishery of the Atlantic coast.* Thus, the use of vessels with 



* See '^Report of Department of Fisheries," Cauada, 1890, p. 70, and Appendix 

 IX, p. 14. 



