PELAGIC SEALING. 251 



somewhere. The industry is undoubtedly responsible for the great reduction that has 

 taken place in the American and Asiatic seal herds, and is rapidly declining. The 

 history of all seal fisheries, except where the seals breed in well-protected localities 

 and are killed under government supervision, has been a history of wasted resources. 

 Unrestricted fur sealing in other parts of the world has, during the past century, 

 resulted in the ruin of 3,11 the great seal rookeries of the Antarctic. 



About the close of the last century a traffic sprang up in the skins of fur seals, 

 and as a result of the many voyages made to the Antarctic regions enormous numbers 

 of fur seals were taken. These were not, however, procured at sea by the ordinary 

 methods of pelagic sealing, but were taken from the rookeries on which they bred. 

 By 1830 the supply of fur seals in the southern seas was nearly exhausted. No 

 discrimination was made in the character of the seals taken, whether males or females. 

 The markets were frequently glutted and much of the catch wasted. In many parts 

 of the Antarctic remnants of these seal herds still linger about their ancient breeding 

 places, and new rookeries could doubtless be established by their protection against 

 indiscriminate sealing. 



In pelagic sealing no selections can be made; males and females must be taken 

 indiscriminately. So long as indiscrimina.te sealing continues the restoration of the 

 seal iisheries to their former importance will be impossible. American citizens are no 

 longer permitted to engage in it, and no portion of the pelagic catch can be imported 

 in any form into the United States. The American and Eussian seal islands have 

 already been rendered nearly valueless by reason of pelagic sealing, and the industry 

 itself is greatly diminished in consequence of the scarcity of seals. It is almost as 

 suicidal as the indiscriminate raiding of seal rookeries. 



The value of the seal skin procured in pelagic sealing does not average more than 

 one-third that of the skin taken on land. The land catch, made under the supervision 

 of the American and Eussian Governments, consists of the skins of 3-year-old males 

 taken when they are in best condition, and constitutes a single grade of the best 

 quality. The pelagic catch is obtained in season and out of season. It consists of 

 young and old, male and female, with all skins more or less damaged by shooting or 

 spearing. It must, therefore, be divided into several grades, most of them of poor 

 quality. 



Pelagic sealing is not only responsible for the destruction of large numbers ot 

 adult female seals, but equal numbers of young seals have died of starvation on the 

 seal islands in consequence of the loss of their mothers. 



THE LOG-BOOK RECOKDS OF THE SEALING FLEET. 



Manjf of the difficulties in the way of solving problems connected with the life 

 history of the fur seal have been due to the fact that the animal is absent from its 

 island home in Bering Sea for about half the year, migrating thousands of miles into 

 the Pacific Ocean. Investigations of seal life at sea, especially in the vicinity of 

 the Pribilof Islands, have been undertaken several times by means of Government 

 vessels, and the work accomplished has not been without important results, but 

 information regarding the seal's migration has been derived chiefly from the log-book 

 records of the sealing fleet. The gradual extension of pelagic sealing by vessels 

 from Bering Sea, where it originated in 1880, over all parts of the Pacific Ocean 



