618 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLn. No, 1087 



PEOGBAM 



Monday, August 2 

 Afternoon Session, Demonstrations 

 In charge of W. P. Tayioe, University of Cali- 

 fornia 

 Pacific Coast Crabs, P. W. Weymoutli, Stanford 

 University. 



Papers: Conservation 

 Barton W. Eveemann, California Academy of 

 Sciences, San Francisco, presiding 

 Opening Address, Charles A. Kofoid, Univer- 

 sity of California, acting vice-president, Section 

 F, Zoology. 



Conservation and Utilization of our Fur Seals 

 (illustrated with lantern slides) : Geoege Aechi- 

 BALD Clakk, Stanford University. 

 The paper pointed out the importance of the 

 herd which has yielded twenty-sis millions in 

 revenue to the treasury since transfer from Eussia 

 in 1867. The seal herd was shown to be reduced 

 to-day to one tenth its original size, with corre- 

 sponding decrease of revenue. Two pertinent fea- 

 tures of the natural history of the seals were dis- 

 cussed; first, the polygamous habit, on which land 

 sealing, the removing of the surplus males — as in 

 case of domestic animals — was based and eon- 

 ducted without injury to herd; second, the dis- 

 tant feeding and migration habit, which take the 

 animals constantly outside the ordinary territorial 

 jurisdiction and down in the Pacific to the lati- 

 tude of Southern California each winter. The de- 

 cline of the herd was shown to be due to indis- 

 criminate hunting in the open sea, involving the 

 death of gravid and nursing females with their 

 offspring. This form of hunting was stopped 

 after thirty-two years by treaty with Great Brit- 

 ain, Eussia and Japan, signed in 1911, in which 

 the United States pledged a share of its land 

 catch of males to Canada and Japan in return for 

 abandonment by their citizens of pelagic hunting. 

 Congress in 1912 in enacting law to give effect to 

 this treaty suspended land sealing also, cutting off 

 vital consideration and jeopardizing the treaty, 

 also involving half -million dollar annual loss and 

 future detriment to herd through overstock of 

 males. A review of government management 

 showed mistakes and apparent inability to deal 

 effectively with problem; marked by inefficiency 

 of transient politically appointed agents and fail- 

 ure to utilize scientific investigations when made 

 at intervals. The need of systematic and persist- 

 ent expert care and study was shown to be im- 



perative. Management through Treasury Depart- 

 ment first and later by Department of Commerce 

 both marked by failure. Transfer urged to De- 

 partment of Agriculture, which in its biological 

 survey and division of animal industry has experts 

 and facilities necessary to deal with herd, whose 

 problems are analogous to those of sheep, cattle, 

 etc. 



Condition of the American Seal Herd in 19 H 

 (motion pictures of the fur seal) : W. H. Os- 

 good, United States Biological Survey. 

 A census of the American herd of fur-seals on 

 the Pribilof Islands in 1914 shows in round num- 

 bers 295,000 seals, of which 93,250 are breeding 

 females. This is an increase from 268,000 in 

 1913 and 215,000 in 1912, or nearly forty per 

 cent, in two years. Although there are other con- 

 siderations, this increase is due mainly to tha 

 treaty of 1911 by which pelagic sealing was 

 stopped. The total number of animals is not 

 large as compared with upwards of 2,000,000 whick 

 the herd once contained, but actually it is by no 

 means small and it is reasonable to hope that witk 

 proper management a nearly or quite complete re- 

 generation of the herd may be effected. 



A very large proportion of the increase consists 

 of young male seals and these, if permitted to come 

 to maturity, will soon produce a large overstock 

 of males of breeding age. This increase and the 

 impending surplus of male life are due principally 

 to a limitation of land killing imposed by a law 

 passed by the congress of the United States in 

 1912. It has been and may well be contended 

 that this law should not have been enacted. 

 Whether or not the law at the time it was passed 

 had any features deserving support (and this is of 

 no present importance) it is evident that the re- 

 strictions imposed by it are now both unnecessary 

 and harmful. That it should be radically changed 

 or entirely repealed is so plain as to be scarcely 

 open to argument. 



Motion pictures taken in 1914 illustrate the pe- 

 culiarities of seals of different classes, their ap- 

 pearance and habits, and sufficiently demonstrate 

 in an incontrovertible way that the seal herd is 

 not, as many suppose, on the verge of extinction. 

 They show also the methods of enumerating seals, 

 of driving, branding, killing and of taking and 

 preserving skins. 



The Recent History and Present Status of somt 

 Game and Fur-bearing Mammals of California: 

 Walter P. Tayloe, curator of mammals, Mu- 

 seum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of Cali- 

 fornia. 



