568 



On the last day of the meeting the delegrates from the Soviet Union requested 

 the irCX to call upon the governments of the United States. Canada, Norv\'ay, 

 and Denmark to ban all hunting of polar bear for a live year period so that the 

 on-going international research program could go ahead without the threat of a 

 continued decline of the sixH^ies. After considerable discussion, agreement was 

 reache<l on a modified wording of the proposal. 



The api>eal was subsequently endorsed by the Survival Service Commission 

 and transmitted to the several governments by the lUCN. 



A final subject con.«idered by the ix)lar bear group was the possibility of an 

 International Convention for Research and Management of the Polar Bear. Mr. 

 Wolfgang Burhenne presented an outline of alternatives to assist the delegates 

 in considering a iwssible framework for an international convention, biit he 

 emphasized that the terms of any such convention would have to be develojied in 

 official consultation ^^•ith the respective governments. The delegates agreed to 

 for a more comprehensive dLscussion on the .subject at the next meeting which 

 will be held in February 1972. The delegates elected Dr. Andrew Macpherson of 

 Canada as chairman for the next two years. 



The Fur Seal Convention : A Working Management Program 



The recent action by the International Fur Trade Federation to recommend a 

 voluntary total ban on trade in the skins of 5 gravely endangered animals, and a 

 temix)rary ban of three years on leopard and cheetah skins, might well be regarded 

 as a welcome step toward an agreed international plan to manage these declining 

 resources on a rational basis. 



Such management plans can be completely successful, as has been clearly 

 demon-strated in connection with the northern fur seals of the Pribilof Islands of 

 Alaska. At one time on the verge of extinction, the fur seal herds have been re- 

 established under a four-nation treaty, and their productivity has been high 

 because of enlightened harvest programmes. 



Major seal rookeries exist on three island areas in the northern Pacific: the 

 Pribilofs under US jurisdiction, the Commander islands, some of the Kuriles and 

 Robben i.sland under Soviet control. Prior to 1911, excessive hunting plus the 

 wasteful and uncontrolled pelagic harvest had reduced the herds to remnants. 



After extended negotiations, and with Asian seals near extinction and the 

 Pribilof population down to 200.000 animals, the United States, Great Britain. 

 Japan, and Russia concluded a convention for protection of the North Pacific fur 

 .seals. Only native people u.sing primitive methods could continue to kill fur seals 

 on the high seas. In exchange for the ban on pelagic sealing the United States and 

 the Soviet Union provide Japan and Canada each with 15 percent of the harve.st 

 from the Pribilofs and 15 percent of the harvest from those islands under juris- 

 diction of the Soviet Union. 



The Pribilof herd is now estimated at some 1.5 million animals. The Asian 

 herds have increa.sed substantially and are still growing. 



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

 Interior with the management of the fur seals under U.S. jurisdiction. His De- 

 partment's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries supervises the harvest of an average 

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



The harvest is restricted largely to 3- and 4-year old "bachelor" males that 

 congregate on the edges of the rookeries. Females are killed only when this is 

 required to keep the number of animals at the most productive level the environ- 

 ment can support. 



The outlook for the future of this natural resource is bright, provided that 

 international cooperative management can be continued. Given that continued 

 cooperation, the fur seal resource will be available not only for furs and food but 

 in addition provide a unique opportunity for man to observe and study one of the 

 world's outstanding animals, in a population in the millions, in an environment 

 much as it has existed over ages past. 



Source of data : Fur Seals of the Pribilof Islands, U.S. Department of the 

 Interior, 1970. 



^J^^^^^'S^^^ ^'^^ recently flown from Amsterdam to Rome as a gift from 

 the WWF, Netherlands to the WWF Italy. These animals will serve as a breeding 

 nucleus in the Abruzzi National Park from which roe-deer have long disappeared. 



