PELAGIC SEALING. 233 



On the Pairweather ground sealing is carried on from March until June. 



Sealing on the Japan coast does not regularly commence before the middle of 

 March, and the sealing fleet is not on the ground in full force before April 1. For 

 January and February there appears to be but the record of a single vessel, at the 

 southern border of this sealing ground. 



March sealing is practically limited to the southern quarter of this ground. Seal- 

 ing in April is extended north to about the latitude of H akodate, and operations in 

 May extend but little north of it. June sealing begins a little south of Hakodate 

 and extends to the north end of Iterup Island, when the seal herd begins to move 

 rapidly, there being no July sealing of any importance south of the summer habitat 

 in Bering sea. The height of the sealing on both sides of the Pacific is in March, 

 April, and May, but the difference in the latitude of the hunting grounds is very great, 

 90 per cent of the northwest coast catch being made from 600 to 1,000 miles farther 

 north than that of the Japan coast. 



The coastwise hunting range on the Japan coast for any month averages little 

 more than 400 miles, while the range for the same month on the northwest coast is 

 from two to five times as great. Thus, for February there is a range of 1,000; for 

 March, 2,000; for April, 1,500; for May, 1,000, and for June, 1,000 miles. 



For both of the Bering Sea sealing grounds sealing is practically limited to July, 

 August, and September, and is conducted within a radius of 500 miles. There is no 

 sealing anywhere in October and November. 



Vessels sealing on the Japan coast in 1896 cleared from Canadian and American 

 ports between December 20 and January 20, reaching the sealing ground, or some of 

 the Japanese ports, early in March, a few calling at Honolulu on the way. Vessels 

 going to Bering Sea leave the Japan sealing ground in June, those clearing from Puget 

 Sound or Victoria sailing usually after the middle of the same month. 



Vessels refitting at Japanese ports call at Yokohama only at the commencement 

 of the season, Hakodate being the most convenient port later in the season. 



In June, 1895, 15 seals were taken in the northern part of the Sea of Japan and 

 in La Perouse Straits, by the American Schooner Penelope. Seals occurring in these 

 waters are probably referable to the Kobben Island herd. 



Although sealing vessels have for the past eighteen years taken more than 60,000 

 seals from islands in the Okhotsk Sea, there are no data at hand to show that any 

 important number was procured in the water. In 1895 the American schooner 

 Anaconda took 170 seals in the Okhotsk S^a, in the vicinity of St. lona Island. 



Late in June, 1895, the American schooner M, M. Morrill took 80 seals in the 

 Kuril passes south of Paramusir Island, many of which were females in milk, indica- 

 ting their connection with the now nearly obliterated rookeries in the Middle Kuril 

 Islands. A slightly earlier breeding season is also indicated for seals belonging to 

 the Kuril rookeries. 



Pelagic sealing off the Japan coast was not engaged in to any important extent 

 until the restrictions of the modus vivendi in 1892 excluded the sealing fleet from the 

 American side of Bering Sea. Since then the Japan ground has been regularly visited 

 by a large portion of the fleet. 



Prior to 1892 the seals taken in May and June off the southern coast of the 

 Alaska Peninsula constituted an important part of the pelagic catch. Since the Paris 

 regulations came into force in the award area there has been no May, June, or July 



