THE RUIN OF THE HERD. 



MALES CAN BE KILLED WITH IMPUNITY. 



189 



Third, it is agreed that owing to the polygamous habit of the fur seal, coupled 

 with an equal birth rate of the sexes, it is possible to remove a large number of males <- 

 with impunity, and that the operations of land killing as now conducted do not affect 

 the virility of the males or fail to leave an adequate supply of male life for breeding 

 purposes. As land killing has always been confined to the males, and as its operations 

 are to-day what they have been since the herd came into American control, except in 

 so far as they have been improved, this means that land killing is not and has not 

 been a factor iu the decline of the herd. 



EXCESSIVE DESTRUCTION OF FEMALES. 



Fourth, it is agreed that pelagic sealing involves the killing of males and females 

 alike without discrimination, as the sexes coexist in the sea; that the proportion of 

 females taken in the pelagic catches of recent years has been from 62 to 84 per cent; 

 that the females so taken are in large part pregnant and nursing, their death involving 

 the death of their offspring. It is agreed that this abstraction of breeding females, 

 which in recent years has been largely in excess of the natural increment of the herd, 

 has gone too far, and has caused the diminution found in the herd. In other words, 

 put in plain terms, this means that pelagic sealing has been the cause of the decline 

 in the fur-seal herd. 



COMPROMISE FINDINGS. 



It is also agreed th a limited number of females, within the natural increment 

 of the herd, may be killed without causing actual diminution. It is found that in 

 the rapid decline of the pelagic catch there is a tendency toward equilibrium at this 

 point of safety. It is further found that as a species the fur seal is far from being 

 exterminated, and that under the present conditions of protection such extermination 

 is not probable. These statements are self-evident truths, though wholly irrelevant ' 

 to the question. We have already discussed this supposed equilibrium. The supposed 

 safety of the herd as a species is made to depend upon the maintenance of a costly ? 

 patrol, which would naturally be abandoned by the United States if it saw no hope 

 of the restoration of its industry. 



THE HERD COMMERCIALLY RUINED. 



Finally, it is agreed that the herd in its present condition yields but an inconsiderable 

 return either to the lessees of the islands or to the owners of the pelagic fleet. In a 

 word, it is agreed that the fur-seal herd has declined until it is commercially ruined 

 both on laud and at sea ; that land killing is not responsible for this decline, and that 

 pelagic sealing is responsible. 



PELAGIC SEALING INCOMPATIBLE WITH PRESERVATION OF HERD. 



We have shown clearly enough in our discussion of the methods and conditions 

 of pelagic sealing that the continuance of the industry in any form is incompatible 

 with the preservation and restoration of the fur-seal herd. In taking up a 

 reconsideration of the matter there is but one thing to do, namely, abolish pelagic 

 sealing; in other words, remove the cause of the decline. This is the task which must 

 confront the United States and Great Britain as well at the close of the season of 1898. 



