The principles of seal conservation have 

 also been applied to sea elephants, which 

 were once abundant on many islands such as 

 South Georgia in the South Atlantic. At 

 one time they were reduced everywhere, but 

 are now increasing again. 



all those instruments and working-tools that are now supplied to 

 them by the introduction of iron. Even the blood is not lost; for 

 they boil that, with other ingredients, as soup. Of the skins they 

 form clothing, coverings for their beds, houses and boats, and 

 thongs and straps of every description. To be able to take seals is 

 the height of the Greenlanders' desires and pride ; and to this labor, 

 which is in truth an arduous one, they are trained from their child- 

 hood. By this they support themselves; by this they render them- 

 selves agreeable to each other, and become beneficial members of 

 the community." 



Primitive communities like the Greenlanders' do no more than 

 skim the surplus from the seal populations. Somehow or another, 

 modern civilizations have to learn to emulate the ways of primitive 

 communities: to take what they need without impairing the 

 sources of supply. This is what we mean by conservation. And 

 conservation must be based on scientific knowledge. Some impres- 

 sion of the prodigious numbers of the world populations of seals 

 can be gained from the history of one species alone — the Alaskan 

 fur seal. And it so happens that this seal has given us an object 

 lesson in conservation. 



The main base of the Alaskan fur seal is the Pribilof Islands in 

 the Bering Sea. When first discovered in 1786, the islands were the 

 breeding base for millions of fur seals, but owing to exploitation 

 by Russian and American sealers, this population was reduced to 

 a mere 200,000 by 191 1 . By international agreement the islands were 

 then put under strict control and the annual catch of seals limited. 

 By 1927 the population had risen again to a million or so. Now the 

 population is in excess of 3 ,000,000 and the number of skins taken 

 is 50,000 each year. Even with that ample harvest the population 

 continues to rise, hence the complaints from the salmon canners. 



This spectacular result has been achieved by a scientific study of 

 the habits of the seals. In the autumn the seals spread out across the 

 two thousand miles of the North Pacific to feed. With the return 

 of spring they begin to head for certain passages in the Aleutian 

 Islands and continue on for another hundred miles to the fogbound 

 Pribilofs. The breeding colonies are begun by the bulls, which 

 arrive first, claim their territories, and await the arrival of the cows, 

 for whom they fight, gathering them into harems of thirty to forty. 

 Within a day or two of arrival each cow gives birth to a single pup 

 conceived during the previous year. After this they mate with the 

 bull, who during the breeding season does not leave the harem to 

 feed. The cows go out to sea to feed and after an absence of days 

 return to suckle their young. Meanwhile bachelor males two to 

 three years old and not capable of forming harems live apart on 

 what are called "bachelor beaches." When the breeding is ended 

 the bulls return to sea until the next season. In October and Novem- 

 ber, when the pups are old enough to make the journey, they and 

 the cows follow the bulls the two thousand miles south to their 

 winter quarters. 



While the harems are still dominated by their respective master 

 bulls, the immature bulls are constantly challenging their right to 

 the harems. The old bulls charge across their territories with no 

 regard for the cows or the pups, and this, together with casualties 

 from the actual fights, results in a heavy mortality. Once this was 

 understood, it was an easy matter to see that the harvest of skins 



