EUE-SKAL liSfDUSTEY OF THE COMMANDER ISI^VNDS 
2191 
The investigations of the commission indisputably demonstrated the fact 
that the disastrous .decline of the various seal herds was due to pelagic sealing aloni^j 
It, was made equally evident that the measures of protection devised b}'' the Paris 
tribunal for the conservation of the seals were utterly inadequate and that if relief 
were not afforded soon the seal herds would eventually be destroyed commercially. 
The regulations made by the Paris tribunal legalized pelagic sealing during the migrar 
tions of the seals in the Pacific Ocean south of Bering Sea. The American side of 
the latter was closed to all pelagic sealing until August 1, after which date it was 
permitted up to within 60 miles of the Pribilof Islands, it being supposed that this 
time limit and zone sufficed for the protection of the female seals during the breeding 
season. It should be noted that the regulations of the Paris tribunal related only 
to the Pribilofs, the American islands, and not to the Russian or Commander Islands, 
over which the tribunal had no jurisdiction. Russia, in the meantime, negotiated 
a separate treaty with Great Britain for the protection of the herd of the Com- 
mander Islands : but illusory as was the American protection, that devised for the 
Russian islands was even worse, for the protecting zone was fixed at 30 miles around 
the Commander Islands with no restrictive time limit during the breeding season. 
In the meantime the annual yield from the killing of bachelor seals on land and 
breeding females at sea was gradually dwindling, and a flourishing industry, the 
income from which had more than reunbursed the United States for the entire 
original purchase price of Alaska, was threatened with extinction when the Govern- 
ments of the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan finally realized that 
something had to be done. The negotiations that followed resulted in the abolition 
of legal pelagic sealing by the nationals of the four powers in the North Pacific 
and adjacent seas, a convention to that effect being concluded in Washington on 
July 7, 1911. 
The beneficial effect of this treaty became apparent almost immediately on 
the Pribilof Islands. Despite the cessation of commercial land killing for five years, 
which retarded the rehabilitation of the herd, the number of seals increased from 
about 216,000 in 1912 to approximately 605,000 in 1922. Returns from the Japan- 
ese Government of the 10 per cent of the skins taJsen on Robben Island indicated 
similarly improved conditions there. Only from the Russian islands no authentic 
information was forthcoming. The question as to whether this lack of information 
was due solely to the distracted condition of the Far East after the Russian revolu- 
tion or whether other circumstances were responsible naturally arose, in vieAV of the 
fact that the treaty of July 7, 1911, was to continue in force for a period of 15 years 
from December 15, 1911, and thereafter until terminated b}' 12 months' written 
notice, which notice might be given at the expiration of 14 years — consequently on 
or after December 15, 1925. Early in 1922, therefore, the Department of Commerce 
decided to make an investigation of conditions existing there. , . 
Because of the writer's previous experience in fur-seal matters in Asiatic waters 
he was detailed by the United States National Museum to conduct the investigation 
for the Department of Commerce, and had to aid him Capt. Carl E. Lindquist, of 
Oakland, Calif., whose 14 years of service on various vessels in Asiatic waters and 
familiarity with sealiug conditions made his assistance invaluable. 
