302 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
ican schooners, which were gradually driven out of the business by the Japanese, 
who, because of their cheaper outfit and labor, were able to make a big profit 
where foreign schooners would starve. In addition, the Japanese Parliament passed 
a law in March, 1897, by which, from April 1, 1898, under certain conditions, a money 
subsidy was paid to the Japanese sealers,* a law that was not repealed until 1909 
(Imperial Japanese Decree No. 173, June 26, 1909). 
The award of the Paris tribunal, with its partial protection of a 60-mile zone 
aroimd the seal islands and the close of hunting in Bering Sea until August 1 , as 
well as the elimination of firearms, applied only to the American and not to the 
Russian islands. In addition, the 30-mile limit thrown around the Commander 
Islands was only a separate treaty agreement between Great Britain and Russia 
and boimd no other nations. Thus when the Canadians ceased pelagic sealing on 
the Asiatic side and the Japanese took it up, even that slim protection was done 
away with. Although utterly valueless as a protection against regular pelagic seal- 
ing, the 30-mile zone had afforded a fair defense against raids on the rookeries by 
poaching schooners, against whom the 3 miles of the Territorial waters was of very 
little protection because of the frequent dense fogs which made it is an easy task 
for the marauders to get close up to the rookeries unobserved. The Japanese were 
not restricted to the use of bow and arrows, but employed the shotgun with all its 
terrible waste of life. As their catches steadily increased in spite of the dwindling of 
the herd, it is evident that the Japanese were gaining efficiency from their experience, 
and there is also reason for believing that the increase was due, at least partially, 
to the taking of oversized skins, for which the earlier Canadian and American 
sealers had no market. 
The seriousness of the Japanese pelagic sealing and the terrible inroads made 
upon the Commander Islands herd may be fully understood b}'^ a glance at the follow- 
ing table, mainly derived from Suvorof (Komandorski Ostrova, 1912, p. 42). 
Nmnher of Japanese sealing vessels and their catch, from 1897 to 1910, inclusive 
Year 
Schoon- 
ers 
Skins 
taken 
Skins per 
schooner 
Year 
Schoon- 
ners 
Skins 
taken 
Skins per 
schooner 
1897 
14 
16 
12 
15 
19 
15 
21 
28 
5, 247 
4.860 
6,518 
7,533 
6,945 
7,462 
11, 240 
15, 698 
376 
304 
543 
502 
1905. 
29 
29 
35 
31 
35 
37 
10, 035 
10, 176 
10,420 
13, 355 
10, 465 
8,309 
346 
361 
298 
430 
299 
22« 
1898 
1906. 
1899 : 
1907.. 
innn _ _ 
1908 
1901 
366 
497 
535 
561 
1909 
1902 
1910 
1903. ...L 
Total 
1904 _ _ 
128,263 
If it is taken into consideration that about 30 per cent more seals were shot 
at than secured, and if allowance is made for one-third of these seals having 
escaped with their lives, it will be seen that the total number killed by the Japanese 
alone during those 14 years can scarcely have been less than 154,000, of which prob- 
ably not less than 92,000 were cows, not to mention the loss to the herd due to the 
consequent starvation of the pups on the rookeries and the unborn young of the 
cows killed. 
> For more detailed provisions of the law see Asiatic Fur-8eal Islands, p. 325. 
