BUREAU OF FISHERIES 135 



The Alaska Division: As its name implies, the Alaska 

 Division deals with the regulation of the fisheries resources 

 in Alaskan waters and with the direction of the fur-seal in- 

 dustry on the Pribilof Islands. It is organized on the basis 

 of two major sections, one devoted to salmon and other 

 fisheries, and the second to the fur-seal industry. The head- 

 quarters for fur-seal activities is located on the Pribilof 

 Islands in the Bering Sea about 240 miles from the nearest 

 port, Unalaska, in the Aleutian Islands. 40 On these islands, 

 about 80 per cent of the seals of the world have their breed- 

 ing grounds. 



The islands, of which only two (St. Paul and St. George) 

 are inhabited, contain a population of nearly four hundred 

 natives. Isolated from the rest of the world, the islands are 

 a little self-contained community. Each summer it has been 

 customary for the navy to detail a ship to transport the 

 major portion of the general supplies needed on the islands 

 during the coming year and to take back to Seattle the furs 

 that have been gathered during the season passed. 



During the rest of the year the islands are dependent upon 

 the Fisheries Bureau's ship Penguin which voyages north 

 about once every two months carrying perishable supplies. 

 The Penguin is also used in inter-island communications and 

 in the transportation of natives from villages on the Alaskan 

 peninsula to the islands for temporary employment in the 

 sealing industry. The coming of the radio forged one more 

 link with the outside world, but still the inhabitants have to 

 depend upon themselves during most of the year. 



The bureau does everything possible to make life livable 

 in this distant outpost of civilization. It provides schools 

 for the children, two doctors and a dentist to safeguard the 

 health of the settlers, a priest and church for the natives, 



4 O'Malley, Henry, The Fur-Seal Industry, Bureau of Fisheries, 

 publication No. 71. 



