59 



THE EABED SE1AI.S (AND SEA UONS) 



Members of this family include the sea lions and the fur seals. The sea lions 

 are not heavily utilized; several thousand are believed to be taken each year 

 in Alaska from a population of perhaps a half million, for food and hides. In 

 California, the sea lions are protected under state regulation. 



The major controversy as to this family concerns the Alaska fur seal, taken 

 by the thousands each summer on the Pribilof Islands, in the Bering Sea. No 

 one contends that the species is endangered ; although its population has fluctu- 

 ated widely, from a reported 5 million to perhaps 215,000, the herd size today is 

 estimated at 1.3 to 1.5 million, of which a substantial proportion is immature 

 and not yet available for breeding. 



The fur seal was first commercially utilized by Russian fur traders, who made 

 substantial inroads on the population of the fur seals in the 18th and early 19lh 

 centuries. The United States acquired Alaska in 1867 for $7,200,000, and one of 

 the major incentives for the purchase was the fur seal reserves. 



Perhaps the major reason for the heavy attrition suffered by the fur seal 

 was the fact that it had been traditionally killed in the water, by pelagic sealing. 

 This made it imix>ssible to distinguish between males and females; if a female 

 was taken, it could mean the death of a fetus and an immature pup as well. The 

 fur seal is polygamous by nature, and when they reach the rookeries in the 

 Pribilofs, the mature females congregate in "harems" of up to 100, but averaging 

 about 40 per bull. Since the sex ratio at birth is approximately equal, this means 

 that a large number of bachelors are left with only their own company. A long- 

 standing policy of killing only males was broken in 1955 to permit the killing 

 of females as well ; the earlier policy was reinstated in the 1969 season and 

 is in effect today. The kill of females in 1968 was 13,335. 



The process of killing the seals is not complicated : each morning a crew goes 

 out to one of the areas in which the bachelors congregate, and then drives a 

 number of these inland to a killing ground. Small groups are cut out from the 

 herd, and then these are killed as promptly as possible by hitting them over the 

 head with a hardwood club and then cutting a major artery. The clubbing is 

 usually enough to kill them if it is done accurately. 



The number killed each year will vary some\Vhat; it is set not by quota but 

 by the time within which killing is allowed. In recent years this has generally 

 been the last week in June and all of July. Since the seals arrive in waves, be- 

 ginning \\'ith the oldest, this is expected to ensure that enough males survive 

 each year to carry on the propagation of the .species. Efforts are made to con- 

 centrate on the 3 and 4 year-olds, and males do not usually reach breeding age 

 until they are 10 or so. 



The word for the fur seal program is "management". Scientists have been 

 experimenting for years with various procedures for selecting which .seals are 

 and are not to be killed. There has been a continuing effort to develop "humane" 

 ways by which these animals are to be killed, but the Department of Commerce 

 (which inherited the program as a fimction of the Bureau of Commercial Fish- 

 eries in the 1970 Reorganization) claims that clubbing and sticking is the most 

 humane (and safe.st for the clubbers) method yet devised. 



There are approximately 600 inhabitants on the islands of St. Paul and St. 

 George in the Pribilof group. These are descendants of people transported to the 

 islands as slave labor by the Russians in the 18th and 19th centuries. Roughly 

 % of the 176 persons employed in the annual taking of fur seals are from these 

 islands the rest are from Alaska, the Aleutians and the "lower 48". The natives 

 skin the seals and give the skins preliminary treatment before they are shipped 

 to the mainland for ultimate processing. 



The Fouke (pronounced Fowk) Company of South Carolina has had a negoti- 

 ated contract for several years with the Federal government to process these 

 skins and then to sell them for the account of the United States. The Fouke Com- 

 pany sends observers to ensure that the skins are handled properly before ship- 

 ment. 



Fouke holds auctions each spring and fall for the sale of skins from the Alaska 

 kill, and at these auctions skins are sold for the United States, Russia and Japan. 

 The price of skins has been declining somewhat in recent years, perhaps in part 

 as the result of expressions of concern by animal lovers. The Fouke share of the 

 sale is tied to the sale price and computed by a complicated formula ; it is esti- 

 mated that Fouke's share in recent years has run to as much as 40% of the sale 

 price of the skins (averaging plus or minus $80). The proceeds of the sale, after 

 deducting the Fouke share, are applied to the operation of the Pribilof islands 



