18 
FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 1909. 
diminution during these years, we must accept the conclusion that 
the number of breeding females which produce these bachelors also 
have remained at a state of equilibrium, notwithstanding the heavy 
killing of females in the open sea by pelagic sealers. 
Since 1903 the annual catches of bachelors on the islands have 
been as follows, the figures given representing the annual shipments 
of skins from the islands by the lessee: 
1903 19,292 
1904 13,128 
1905 14,368 
1906 14,476 
1907 14,964 
1908 14,996 
1909 14,331 
From an examination of these figures it appears that the lessee 
took over 19,000 skins in 1903; that its catch dropped to 13,000 in 
1904, and that annually thereafter it killed practically 15,000 seals 
until 1909. 
If these figures were susceptible of no other explanation than that 
the number of bachelors had not diminished, this conclusion would 
have to be accepted without argument. If, however, other facts 
have relevancy in a consideration of the cause of this stability of 
the catch, they should be examined before the conclusion is accepted 
that no decrease in the breeding herd has occurred during this period. 
ANALYSIS OF CONDITIONS. 
Previous to 1904 no restriction upon the size of bachelors to be 
killed was enforced. The annual quotas allowed were so ample as 
to carry permission to kill every available bachelor appearing in 
the drives. In its operations the lessee killed every 4-year-old, 
every 3-year-old, and every 2-year-old driven up that had not a 
defective skin. Its rejections of seals from the killing fields were 
confined to those seals only with bad skins, to those young wigs too 
large for the market, or to such few yearlings as appeared in the last 
drives of the season. All other male seals were killed. In 1903 
the rejections of small seals numbered only 1,185 on St. Paul, 
and at least one-fourth of these were dismissed from the two food 
drives made by the government agents during the period between 
August 1 and 10. With so small a proportion of rejections in 1903 
and the large catch of that year, we must conclude that the lessee 
killed almost every available seal that appeared. Furthermore, 
it anticipated its next year’s catch by killing all of the 2-year-olds 
that hauled up and that could be driven. Such as escaped 
were killable the following year as 3-year-olds. The lessee, in plain 
