MAKING THE FUR SEAL ABUNDANT 
killed and lost because they sank before 
the hunters could lay hold of them, while 
many that were wounded and escaped 
died later; (2) that for every adult fe- 
male killed on the way to the islands in 
spring an unborn pup was sacrificed ; 
(3) that for every female killed after the 
herd had reached the islands a pup on 
shore was left to die a lingering death 
by starvation, and a pup to be born the 
next season was likewise sacrificed. 
RESULTS OF PARIS AWARD MOST 
DISASTROUS 
The government was not slow to real- 
ize the damage done to the seal herd by 
pelagic sealing, and was led to assume 
jurisdiction over the entire American 
side of Bering Sea and to regard as 
poachers any persons found hunting 
seals therein. The seizure of vessels fly- 
ing the United States and British flags 
followed, and there arose a controversy 
with Great Britain, which culminated in 
the reference of the case to an interna- 
tional tribunal of arbitration that met in 
Paris in 1893. The award of the arbi- 
tration court was against the United 
States on both of the main contentions, 
namely, that Bering Sea isa closed sea, 
and that the property right in the seal 
herd warranted the government in pro- 
tecting the seals while on the high seas. 
Since the award of the Paris tribunal 
the case of the fur-seal herd has gone 
from bad to worse. The United States 
government early showed its good faith 
by prohibiting its citizens from engaging 
in the lucrative industry of pelagic seal- 
ing; but the subjects of all other coun- 
tries were permitted to do so, and it was 
the injection of a new factor, Japan, that 
contributed more than any other cause to 
the decimation of our seal herd. 
The arbitration court appeared to rec- 
ognize the necessity for affording some 
measure of relief to the sadly harassed 
seals, and accordingly it promulgated 
certain “regulations for the proper pro- 
tection and preservation of the fur seals 
in or habitually resorting to Bering 
Sea ;” but in the entire history of fishery 
regulation there is probably no other 
1155 
case that affords such a striking example 
of impotency and inefficiency. 
We could have accepted with equa- 
nimity the major terms of the Paris 
award, but we might be justified in re- 
garding the further proceedings as a co- 
lossal hoax if their effect had not been so 
fraught with disaster to the interests of 
the fur seals and the United States gov- 
ernment. A distinguished authority on 
the fur-seal question has stated that ‘‘on 
the whole, it is difficult to see how a 
more comfortable and convenient set of 
regulations could have been prepared 
had the pelagic sealers themselves drawn 
them up. It is difficult to see how they 
could be made more destructive to the 
herd if that had been their deliberate 
intent.” 
Bearing in mind the avowed purpose 
of these regulations, we note with amaze- 
ment that in 1894, the first year of their 
operation, more seals were killed at sea 
and greater damage was done to the herd 
than ever before; and during the three 
years following the opening of Bering 
Sea to the legalized ravages of the pe- 
lagic sealers the immediate loss to the 
Pribilof herd from this cause was not 
less than 500,000 seals, of which a large 
proportion were adult females, while the 
total land killing during the same period 
was only 80,000 surplus males! 
THE GOVERNMEN’’S FUR-SEAL PROBLEM 
AND POLICY 
The fur-seal problem with which the 
United States government now has to 
deal presents several phases. The most 
important duty the responsible officials 
have to perform is to conserve and in- 
crease the seal herd. This involves con- 
tinuous care, study, and observation; the 
determination of the actual condition and 
needs of the herd, and the application of 
the results of scientific and economic in- 
vestigation to the welfare of the seals. 
A scarcely less important duty, and 
one that is in no respect antagonistic to 
the first, is to provide a revenue and to 
utilize a highly useful resource at the 
time when that resource possesses the 
greatest market value. This involves the 
