70 



2. STATUS OP ENVIRONMENT UPON WHICH OCEIAN MAMMALS DEPEND 



At best, the environment remains basically unchanged (true, to date, for the 

 polar bear). However, for most ocean mammals there has been a general, slow 

 decline in the environment as the result of oil spills, ocean dumping, and the 

 introduction of heavy metals and other forms of polluted stream runoff into 

 ocean waters. Such migratory mammals as the fur seal are affected adversely 

 by this. 



3. LAWS AND TREATIES 



a. Fur seal: 



The open sea killing was halted by international agreement in 1911, when the 

 United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Russia concluded a convention (North 

 Pacific Fur Seal Convention) for the protection of the North Pacific fur seal. 

 In exchange for the ban on pelagic sealing, the United States and the Soviet 

 Union, under the agreement, provide Japan and Canada each with 15 percent 

 of the harvest from the Pribilofs and 15 percent of the harvest from those islands 

 under jurisdiction of the Soviet Union. 



In addition to the conservation of the seal herd made possible by this agree- 

 ment, there is now an economic gain for the State of Alaska, which by the Alaska 

 Statehood Act obtains 70 percent of the net proceeds from the sale of Alaska 

 sealskins. 



The majority of sealskins are presently utilized by the European market. A 

 ban placed on the importation of seal pelts into the United States would have 

 little, if any, effect on world seal harvests. 



In the United States, the Fur Seal Act of 1966 charged the Secretary of the 

 Interior with management of the fur seals. This responsibility was trans- 

 ferred to the Secretary of Commerce on Oct. 3, 1970. The National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service supervises the 

 harvest of an average 50,000 fur seals each summer on the Pribilof Islands. 



The Fur Seal Act of 1966 prohibits the taking of fur seals in the North Pacific 

 Ocean and all lands and territorial waters of the United States. An exception 

 is made for Alaskan natives, Aleuts, and Eskimos. 



There are now seal rookeries under U.S. jurisdiction on Alaska's Pribilof 

 Islands of St. Paul and St. George in the Bering Sea. on Robben Island, and on 

 the Kurlle Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk, under U.S.S.R. jurisdiction. There is 

 substantial intermixing between the herds of the eastern and western Pacific 

 Ocean. 



b. Whales and other cetaceans: 



Estimates of the population size of the commercially utilized si)ecies of whales 

 indicate that the populations are low and that they are being taken at near 

 or over the maximum sustainable level, mainly by countries other than the 

 United States. Those previously utilized and which are now fully protected 

 as endangered species are, of course, also at a low level. However, the federal 

 government through the Departments of the Interior and Commerce has pro- 

 hibited after December 1971. both tlie importing of products from whales and 

 the taking of them by U.S. citizens. This is the ultimate unilateral protection 

 possible by this nation. Additional protection must come from other countries. 



The U.S. continues to hold membership in the International Whaling Com- 

 mission (14 member nations) which has not been too successful. 



All member nations of IWC have agreed to ban killing of Blue, Humpback, 

 Right, and Gray whales. However, only the U.S. has agreetl to stop taking the 

 Sperm, Sei, and Fin whales, effective December 1971. 



c. Sea otter: 



Complete protection is given to sea otters where their populations are below 

 the carrying capacity of the habitat and population growth can be expected. 



Covered by 19iO Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation 

 in the Western Hemisphere. 



Fur Seal Act of 1966 provides against taking sea otter in high seas by any 

 person subject to U.S. jurisdiction. 



(7. Walrus: 



The Pacific walrus population occurs in international waters and in ter- 

 ritorial waters of the United States and the U.S.S.R. Proi^er management and 

 regulation of the harvest of this species, therefore, is dependent on international 

 cooperation. At present there is no international agreement governing harvest 

 of walrus. 



