MAKING THE FUR 
SEAL ABUNDANT 
Photo from Hugh M. Smith, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 
A CAPTURED PELAGIC SEALING SCHOONER ON THE BEACH AT UNALASKA 
When sealing is conducted far from land the hunters make their headquarters on small 
schooners and distribute themselves in all directions in canoes or rowboats while seeking 
the seals. It has often happened in the past and occasionally happens now that the cupidity 
of the sealers leads them to take their vessels into forbidden territory, where they are likely 
to be apprehended by the vigilant revenue cutters patrolling the vicinity of the Pribilofs. 
This view is of a captured Canadian schooner in charge of a prize crew; her sealing canoes 
may be seen under the cliff, 
nature for the perpetuation of the spe- 
cies. 
The preservation and increase of the 
seal herd is entirely compatible with 
judicious sacrifice of a limited number 
of young male seals each year, and this 
is quite as true when the herd is depleted 
as when the rookeries are crowded to 
their full capacity. When the presence 
of a sufficient reserve is determined by 
responsible officers of the government, 
the utilization of the surplus males for 
their pelts and incidentally for native 
food is justified and demanded by com- 
mon sense, and fulfills the utmost de- 
mands of both the spirit and the letter 
of genuine conservation. 
If not a single male seal were to be 
killed on the islands or at sea curing the 
next five years, not a single additional 
seal would be produced as a result of 
that course. If not a single male seal 
were to be killed on the islands or at sea 
during the next 20 years, not a single 
seal would be added to the herd that will 
not be added if the present policy of re- 
stricted killing of surplus males is con- 
tinued. 
The history of the Alaska seal herd 
clearly indicates that it is capable of 
