357 



North American fur seal population had been reduced to a dangerous 

 level. In 1911, with the support of the fur industries in the four 

 countries harvesting Northern Pacific fur seals, the United States, 

 Canada, Russia, and Japan, signed a Northern Pacific Seal Convention. 

 This was one of the first and a prime example of a plan for the rational 

 use of a natural resource. This convention, may I point out, was adopted 

 long before its present opponents had any thought of the necessity 

 for wildlife conservation. It was highly successful and in 1957 a 

 temporary convention for the conservation of seals was again agreed 

 to by the four countries, as before, with the warm support of the fur 

 industries of those countries. It is this latter convention which expires 

 in 1976. 



Everyone concerned with these hearings knows that the population 

 explosion of people has resulted in the impairment of the natural hab- 

 itat of wild animals. We in the fur industry learned that man's need 

 of living space, space in which to produce his needs and to enjoy his 

 recreational activities, has grown beyond the wildest predictions of 

 the past. The fur industry has come to realize that it has become both 

 necessary and desirable to scientifically manage ^^dld animal stocks if 

 these resources are to be preserved and conserved to serve man's present 

 and future needs and pleasures. 



We in the fur industry have learned that the development and 

 worldwide use of pesticides has added an unanticipated danger to the 

 continued existence of wild animals. Our industry recognizes that 

 pollution of our streams, our land and our atmosphere has threatened 

 not only the lives and livelihood of the people who occupy our ever 

 more crowded earth, but, as well, threatened the lives of many wild 

 animals which historically have provided man with great recreational, 

 educational and economic resources. For all these reasons we realize 

 that conservation measures are urgently needed and that only if such 

 measures are reduced to statutes and international conventions can 

 they effectuate the i-equired conser\'ation. 



We in the fur industry have thus enlarged the recognition e_xpressed 

 years ago in our sup^wrt of the international seal conventions. We 

 recogiiize that the continued existence of the fur industry depends 

 upon the enforcement of conservation measures on a worldwide scale, 

 and that they must relate to all wild animals historically used by maai 

 for food, clothing, adornment or shelter. For these reasons the fur 

 industry welcomes and supports sound Federal laws, strengthened by 

 international agreements, designed to conserve wild animals. 



Accordingly, we urge this committee to report out a carefully con- 

 sidered sea mammal protection bill. 



In May 1969, in testimony in supix)rt. of the Endangered Species 

 Act, our spokesman testified before the Subcommittee on Energy, 

 Natural Resources and the Environment, of the Senate Commerce 

 Committee: 



"We are opposed to the overutilization of any species of wildlife 

 that threatens that specie with extinction." 



Following the passage of that bill, the International Fur Trade 

 Federation representing over 20 countries negotiated an agreement 

 of aims and practices with the International Union for Conservation 

 of Nature and Natural Resources and the World Wildlife Fund. The 

 outline of said agreement is contained in a booklet which I would like 

 to have introduced into the record. 



