22 
FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 1909. 
the same conditions would have been nearly what it was in 1903. 
Yet we can not say that 19,000 seals, or anything near that number, 
could have been secured in 1909. In other words, the herd has 
gradually decreased since 1903 from a point where it allowed a catch 
of over 19,000 to a point, in 1909, where it could not afford 16,500, 
if we count the bachelors marked for breeding as a portion of the 
yield of the herd. We have marked decreases in 1906 and again in 
1909, with a probable equilibrium between those years. But the 
trend of the bachelor herd has been toward gradual decrease, and 
this can be better understood when an observation is extended over 
a period of years. 
The question presents itself: How, if a gradual decrease occurred, 
was the quota maintained at approximately the same number? 
The answer is that the quota of 15,000, when first fixed, was smaller 
than the yield of the herd; that the quotas of the years following 
were aided in large part from the rejections from previous years, 
and that not until 1909 did the herd diminish to a point where it 
could not yield 15,000 skins annually. It was really not until 1909 
that the rejections became practically nil, and even with that the 
quota could not be filled. 
It is with considerable hesitancy that I advance this conclusion 
that the decrease in the herd of breeding seals has been less rapid 
than would otherwise appear. During the period following 1903 
whole rookery areas gradually have been denuded of breeding seals,, 
the rookeries themselves have shrunk, and massed areas of breeding 
seals have become smaller. Every other indication would point to 
the supposed fact that the breeding herd had diminished more 
rapidly than the catches of bachelors would indicate. As it stands, 
however, a material decrease in the herd is apparent in the inability 
of the lessee this last season to secure a quota of skins which could 
have been taken without undue effort in 1903. 
EFFECT OF SAVING 2-YEAR-OLDS. 
When, in 1904, the catch of skins was reduced by regulation from 
19,000 to 13,000, a large number of small bachelors was released. 
As stated heretofore, this catch of 13,000 did not represent by any 
means all the skins the lessee could have taken had the same methods 
of close killing as practiced in preceding years been permitted. Had 
the lessee been allowed in 1904 to sweep the hauling grounds of every 
bachelor appearing there, as in 1903, the catch for 1904 would nearly 
have equaled that of the preceding year. 
As this decrease in the catch in 1904 had its cause solely in the 
enforcement of certain arbitrarily restrictive measures, it had no con- 
nection with the number of breeding females in the herd. Its effect 
was to create a reserve of young animals numbering probably 7,500. 
