236 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



Laij^e u umbers of seal from the Riissiau "rookeries" are scattered every winter 

 over the ocean lying off the north-east coast of Japan, hut thej* are unmolested by 

 foreign or native sealing- vessels, and only tlie fringe of them is touched by native 

 fishermen in their open boils along the Nambu and Yezo coast, where some 2,000 or 

 3,000 are taken annually. 



2. — IN WriAT MANXEU THE FUR-SEAL FISHERY HAS HiCEN OR IS CONDUCTED IN EACH 



PARTICULAR LOCALITY. 



2. The coast fishery by the Jajianese in the immediate neighbourhood of Yezo and 

 off the mainland north of Inabosaki has Just been alluded to. It is carried on in 

 native open boats by means of sjjearing or nets. The catch (2,000 or 3,000 skins 

 a-year) is dispos(Ml of to Chinese merchants at Hakodate. 



Other pelagic sealing there is none in the ocean lying off Japan. 



The few scattered seals still to be found about the exhausted breeding grounds of 

 the Kurilcs are occasionally taken by the schooners of the Japanese "Marine Prod- 

 ucts (,'ompany," but only two fitted out this year, and their catch was sixty seals 

 between them 



Of British and other foreign sealers only three were equipped at Yokohama this 

 year, hut the sphere of their oi)erations lies to the northward beyond Japanese 

 jurisdiction. According to figures furnished by the British Consulate at Yokohama, 

 between eleven and eighteen of these vessels left Yokohama annually for the seal 

 iisheries in the years following the discover.y of the Kurile breeding grounds, 

 namely, between 1882 and 1885 inclusive. After 1885 their numbers gradually dwin- 

 dled, owing to the depletion of the Japanese fishery and the greater risk and uncer- 

 tainty attending a cruize to more northerly waters. 

 167 It is stated by the ,Ja])anese Agricultural Department that "the fur-seal 



appears to be reared on the rocky coasts, and, in consequence, they are gener- 

 ally caught while swimming at a distance not more tliau 1 nautical mile from the 

 coast." 



It may be that a few are so taken about the Kuriles, but the fishery — now almost 

 extinct — of those islands was carried on, in the years of its prosperity, entirely by 

 clubbing the animals on the beach. 



3. — WHETHER ANY, AND, IK ANY, WHAT MEASURES HAVE KEEX TAKEN TOW^ARDS THE 

 PROTECTION OF THE FUR-SEAL FISHEIHES, AND, FUKTHEP., IF ANY SUCH MEASURES 

 ARE KNOWN TO HAVE PROVED SUCCESSFUL IN PRESERVING OK REHABILITATING 

 THE FISHERIES. 



3. The measures tardily taken hy the Japanese Government in 1884 to protect the 

 Kurile rookeries have remained entirely inoperative. Elaborate Regulations were 

 framed in that year and in 1886, establishing a close season between the 1st Novem- 

 ber and the 15th April, and dividing the Kuriles into three groups, in only one of 

 which was fishing to be allowed in any one year, and then only on the issue of a 

 licence by the autliority constituted for the purpose. 



There is no means of enforcing these Regulations, which, indeed, were not devised 

 until after the ruin of the hauling grounds had been eftected. A Japanese guard- 

 ship was told off this year to watch over their observance, but she never left her 

 station at Nemuro, and, except the Japanese "Marine Products Company," now 

 rapidly approaching bankruptcy, no one dreams of applying for the regulation 

 licence, or of limiting his operations to the group in which the fishery is legally per- 

 missilde. But, as stated above, the Kuriles no longer attract the seal fishermen to 

 any extent worth mentioning. 



The Japanese Regulations in question have no bearing on pelagic sealing, which, 

 as already stated, is not engaged in by Japanese or foreign sealing-vessels. 



4. — GENERALLY, ANY PARIICULARS AS TO THE LIFE-HISTORY OF THE ANIMAL, ITS 

 MIGRATION, SEASON OF BRINGING FORTH ITS YOUNG, AND HABITS OF THE SEALS 

 WHILE ENGAGED IN SUCKLING AND REARING THE YOUNG. 



4. The vast bullc of the seals now found in Japanese waters, and more especially 

 in that portion of the ocean extending eastwards from the coast between Inabosaki 

 and the eastern point of Yezo are from the Russian breeding grounds in the Behring 

 Sea and iu the Sea of Okhotsk. 



They follow the fish southwards about the beginning of November, and remain 

 ecattered over a large expanse of ocean, where they are quite unmolested, through- 

 out the winter and spring months. It is a matter of some surprise that no attempt 

 is made to take them in the open sea, as is done on such a large scale iu the case of 

 the seals resorting to the breeding grounds of the eastern portion of Behring Sea. 

 Possibly they scatter more in the Western Pacific, and are less easv to find. 



