282 



Mr. Pollock. Mr. Chainnan, fii"st I will turn this over in a minute 

 to Mr. George Harry, the Director of the Marine Mammal Biolo^^ 

 Laboratory, but during? the early period you mentioned we took the 

 females to' reduce the size of the herd, to reduce it to an efficient size in 

 conjunction with the availability of island facilities. 



AYe do not generally, if a herd is maintained at a certain size, we do 

 not intentially take any of the females. 



Some of the young males, 3- and 4-year-old males and females are 

 similar in api^earance. 



If a female is on the breeding ground, then she would never be in 

 a place where it is harvested. 



We never take them from around the breeding grounds. The male, 

 the 3- and 4-year-old males and the 5-year-old females for that matter 

 stay around the edges of the herd. 



As a matter of fact, if the bachelor males, which are the animals w^e 

 harvest, got in among the females, the big bulls would kill them. In- 

 termittently, some females will get caught wnth the bachelor males, 

 but they are not intentionally taken. 



I would like to give Dr. Harry an opportimity to respond. 



Mr. DiNGELL. I note here we compare the Alaska fur seal popula- 

 tion births and deaths from 1941, the number of births has declined 

 from the time you have been killing fur seals rather strikingly. 



The births have dropped from the first year you engaged in female 

 kills in 1956. 



Mr. Pollock. That was the purpose of it, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. DiNGELL. They have dropped from 992,000 down to 306,000. 



Mr. Pollock. That was the purpose of taking these females during 

 those years. 



Mr. DiNGELL. I am curious as to how^ we can call this good manage- 

 ment. 



What was the reason that you had to reduce this population in such 

 striking fashion? 



Mr. PoLix)CK. Again, I think it is proper that Mr. Harry respond 

 because he is certainly an expert and I am not. 



However, the population was too large in the estimation of the ex- 

 perts maintaining the herd. The way that you reduce the population 

 is not to reduce the males, but the females. 



Mr. DiNGELL. That is a conclusion. 



Now, the statement is made the population is too large. On what 

 basis do you make that statement ? 



Dr. Harry. Could I respond to that, please ? 



Mr. DiNGELL. Please do. 



Dr. Harry. At the time of the negotiations leading to the signing 

 of the treaty in 1956, all of the scientists from the four countries care- 

 fully examined all of the data available at that time on the fur seal 

 population and came to the conclusion that the population was beyond 

 and above the point of maximum sustainable yield. 



They came to this conclusion because the population had levelled off 

 in the mid-1940's, and was no longer growing. There was an increase 

 in the mortality rate of pups on land and there were fairly good-sized 

 fluctuations in the number of pups born eveiy year. 



This was the basis for the decision and it was again a decision of 

 scientists of all countries that in order to get maximum sustainable 

 yield, we had too many animals and they should be reduced in number. 



