THE CONSERVATION OF THE FISHERY RESOURCES 

 OF THE PACIFIC. 



By Db. Barton Warren E\'ermann 



Director of the Museum of the California Academy 

 of Sciences and of the Steinhart Aquarium. 



The fishery resources of the Pacific are, chiefly, (1) the 

 fishes proper, such as the salmon, sardine, halibut, cod, 

 herring, albacore and the like; (2) the aquatic fur-bearing 

 animals such as the various species of fur seals and sea 

 otters; (3) the whales and other cetaceans; (4) the species 

 seaweeds. 



Before man began to deplete these resources through 

 greed and destructive fishery methods, practically all these 

 species were excessively abundant in various parts of the 

 Pacific. The annual product of these natural resources has, 

 in years past, run into hundreds of millions of dollars. 



In the present article attention will be called to only a 

 few of these natural resources. 



FUR SEALS 



It appears not to be generally known that fur seals were 

 once very abundant en certain islands off the coast of 

 California and Lower California. I have recently looked up 

 some of the old records and I was surprised to find that 

 several of these islands were once the breeding grounds of 

 large herds of fur seals. For example, more than 200,000 

 fur seals were killed on the Farallons, only a few miles from 

 San Francisco and the Golden Gate, between 1806 and 1813. 

 Many thousands were killed about the same time on or about 

 San Miguel, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, Santa Barbara, San 

 Clemente and San Nicolas islands off the California coast, 

 and still other thousands at the Coronados, Guadalupe, the 

 Benitos Cedros and Natividad off the coast of Lower Cali- 

 fornia. 



The total number killed between 1806 and 1820 must 

 have exceeded 400,000. At current prices of fur-seal skins 

 these would be worth more than $20,000,000. The killing 

 was done in the most reckless manner possible, without 

 any regard whatever to the presentation of the species, with 



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