Among the laws enforced by the Coast 

 Guard in Alaska are those governing seal- 

 ing. At the time of the Purchase m 1867, 

 there were an estimated 5,000,000 seals. In 

 the first three years of American rule, hunt- 

 ing was unrestricted in the seal breeding 

 grounds in the Pribilof Islands. In one 

 season 250,000 were killed. In 1870, the 

 Government set a limit of 100,000 male 

 seals a year and leased the hunting rights 

 in the islands as a monopoly to the Alaska 

 Commercial Co. for 20 years. 



Slaughter on the sea 



Ships that hunted seals at sea, however, 

 had a free hand. They increased from 16 

 in 1880 to 3-i in 1886 and mo\ed into the 

 Bering Sea. Because they took females and 

 any seals they could get their harpoons 

 into, there was a sharp falling off in the 

 herd and the United States had to hmit 

 island hunting to 2 3,000 a year. 



The problem of how to keep the seals 

 from becoming extinct was not settled 

 until the United States, Great Britain, 

 Russia, and Japan agreed in 1911 to ban 

 commercial sealing in the North Pacific 

 and Bering Sea. For its part, the United 

 States undertook to hunt seals in the Pribi- 

 lofs and to prorate the proceeds from the 

 sale of pelts among the four treaty powers. 

 Enforcement of the ban on deep-sea seal- 

 ing was assigned to the Coast Guard's 

 Bering Sea Patrol. In 28 years, seals in- 

 creased from 132,279 to 1,872,438, and 

 the Treasury had 52,324,501 after paying 

 the other nations their share of the fur 

 profits. 



Japan abrogated the pact in 1941. Only 

 the United States, Britain, and Russia enjoy 

 its benefits today. And the Bering Sea Pa- 

 trol continues to police not only the sealing 

 treaty but subsequent agreements and laws 

 covering halibut, whales, walruses, and 

 alien fishermen. 



Eskimos arrive in an oomiak to keep a dental appointnnent aboard the cutter Klamath. 





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