94 PELAGIC SEALING. 



Comparativeratio between the North Pacific and Bering Sea 



sizes of Bering 



Sea and Pacific catches for a longer period, as prior to 1889 the 



catches. ox 



Bering Sea catch included a portion of the catch 

 in the North Pacific (p. 211, note). 

 Sealing season The Report, in treating- of pelagic sealing 



in Bering Sea and L ' 01.0 



Pacific compared. a ] on g the coast, states that the season extends 

 from February to June, inclusive, and that in Ber- 

 ing Sea it includes July and August (Sees. 132, 

 212, 308, 582). It can be assumed, therefore, 

 from the statements in the Report, that the coast 

 catch occupies four and one-half months in taking 

 and the Bering Sea catch but two months. On 

 the authority of these statements above noted a 

 table has been compiled, which shows the aver- 

 Average daily a ge daily catch per vessel for three years (1889- 



catch in Bering & J r J 



Sea and Pacific \ g91) along the coast to have been 4.3 and in 



compared. y ° 



Bering Sea 13. 1 This includes 1891, when the 

 enforcement of the Modus Vivendi seriously cur- 

 tailed the season in Bering Sea. The United 

 States, therefore, contend that pelagic sealing in 

 Bering Sea is at least three times as destructive 

 to seal life as that along the Northwest Coast. 



3. That the waste of life resulting from pelagic seal- 

 ing is insignificant 



This third proposition is advanced in the 

 Report in defense of the method employed in 



1 Table compiled from Commissioners' tables, post p. 411. 



