40 FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 
the whole trouble is caused by the killing of the female seal by Cana 
dian and other seal poachers. If this could be stopped I am satisfied 
the herd would increase instead of diminish. 
On my visit to the seal islands I was informed by the agent of the 
Treasury Department that they had that year counted 16,000 dead 
seal pups in the rookeries that had starved to death on account of the 
mothers being killed while away in search of food for their young. 
The killing of the mother seal causes deatb by starvation to all their 
young, so that during that one year not less than 32,000 seal were lost 
to our Government through pelagic sealing. There is a feeling in 
Alaska that our Government has not put forth its best efforts to pro- 
tect this industry. It is my judgment that 75 or 80 per cent of the 
seal are killed within the 60-mile zone around the seal islands and 
within the 3-mile limit of the Aleutian Islands. Within the past two 
years I have seen Canadians engaged in sealing within our Jurisdic- 
tional waters, and that, too, within 40 miles of where two or three of 
our revenue cutters were anchored with apparently nothing to do. 
And this brings me to the question upon which I wish to speak par- 
ticularly. The question is, How can we stop pelagic sealing? Mr. 
Chairman, our Government sends from five to eight revenue cutters 
to Alaska each year with apparently very little todo. Now, would it 
not be a good idea, as long as this expense is incurred, to send these 
revenue cutters there with instructions to proceed to Bering Sea and 
cause the arrest of all those engaged in sealing within our jurisdictional 
waters? Iam not here to criticise the Government for not having done 
this before, nor will I censure those in charge of the revenue cutters, 
but I am satisfied that if this is done and vigilant action is taken by our 
officers that 75 or 80 per cent of this killing will be prevented. In 
fact, it is my opinion that if our Government enters upon this work 
in dead earnest, affording full protection to the seal within our own 
waters, that all poaching on the part of Canadians and others engaged 
in this illegal practice will cease entirely, as it would not pay them to 
continue in the business. 
The officers of these cutters should be instructed to protect the seal 
in the spring and fall as they pass between the Aleutian Islands, as 
they go to and fro between the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, where 
thousands of our seals are slaughtered annually. They should also be 
_ instructed to patrol the 60-mile zone around the seal islands and put 
fear of God in the hearts of all those who are engaged in destroying 
our property. 
On the seal question we have had altogether too much so-called sci- 
entific and expert nonsense and not enough good, hard horse sense. 
Let us put in motion the machinery we have, which costs us a large 
sum of money annually, and see what can be done toward protecting 
this valuable industry. I positively know that these foreigners year 
after year engage in destroying our property within our jurisdiction 
with impunity, while itis made a crime for our own people to kill 
seal anywhere on the high seas from 300 miles south of San Francisco 
to the Arctic Ocean. 
The Cuatrman. Have you called the attention of the Department 
of Commerce and Labor to this matter? 
Mr. Ivny. No, sir. . The matter has only recently been placed in 
that Department, being formerly in the Treasury Department. 
While I was collector of customs in Alaska the special agent of the 
