373 



Much of the information disseminated by mass media has been so 

 general, incomplete or slanted that many individuals have been critical 

 of the management of the northern fur seal in the Pribilofs. Certain 

 aspects of the Canadian seal harvest involving the harp seal pup 

 clubbing have been exploited by certain organizations, either igiior- 

 antly or pui-posely deluding the iJublic into believing that this is 

 representative of American sealing on the Pribilofs. In addition, these 

 organizations charge that the manner of cropping fur seals is cruel 

 and inhumane, and that the harvest is initiated by the dollar in catering 

 to milady's vanity and attending graft of bureaucrats and private 

 enterprise. 



I^t's take a look at some of these allegations. A special panel of 

 veterinarians expert in euthanasia scrutinized the harvest procedure 

 on the Pribilof Islands this summer — 1971 — and determined that the 

 current harvest methods were as humane as any so far devised. Com- 

 ments by some individuals that stunning the seals with clubs was 

 primitive, and therefore binital and cniel, brought about efforts by 

 the Government to develop possible alternative cropping methods. Of 

 all those tried to date, the only one that shows merit for possible 

 further research is that on which the American Humane Association 

 ran preliminary investigations this year, involving drug immobiliza- 

 tion and stunning. Though it may not be any more humane than current 

 methods, it may be more es'hetically acceptable to those who abhor the 

 apparent violence of the swinging club. 



In regard to the money incentive as the primary stimulation for 

 the annual harvest, this was true in earlier history, but nowadays is 

 not. The annual harvest is in reality the population control phase of 

 the overall c-omprehensive fur seal management plan, and it is fortui- 

 tous that a byproduct of the operation — the pelt — is economically 

 viable and contributes substantially to meet the costs of the overall 

 program, including the maintenance of the Aleut community. 



Proponents for prohibiting fur seal harvests say that pelagic seal- 

 ing, which would result from an abrogation of the fur seal compact, is 

 really not that serious. But it was pelagic sealing that brought the 

 herd to the brink of extinction prior to the compact, with its inherent 

 indiscrimination of seal sex and age, wastage through unretrieved 

 carcasses, and the suifering of abandoned wounded seals, as well as 

 uncontrollable quotas. Those who say that the seal harvest should be 

 stopped, and international negotiations entered into by the Grovern- 

 ment to prevent i^elagic sealing have the cart before the horse, even if 

 pix>hibition of cropping was feasible. One only need look at the effect 

 on international whaling of the blue whale protection by the United 

 States to realize the futility of unilateral action alone on international 

 wildlife species. 



There is need for international cooperation in natural resources, 

 especially those as dynamic as wildlife. Aside from the actual fur seal 

 management program underway, cooperation from international com- 

 mercial fisheries should be sought in the burning or otherwise complete 

 destruction of portions of synthetic netting instead of throwing them 

 overboard as is the custom. The increase in numbers of fur seals with 

 such fragments of net aroimd their necks has been noted attendant 

 with the increased exploitation of the fishery resource of the Bering 

 Sea. Such pieces of netting work down on the seals' necks, and, work- 



