FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 1909. 
25 
merits in 1874 and 1890. Subsequently, as stated in Mr. E. W. 
Sims’s report® on the seal islands, in 1906, the relation of bachelors 
to the whole herd in 1904 and 1905, according to the censuses made 
by the agent in charge of seal fisheries for those years, was found to 
be, respectively, 1 to 16 and 1 to 14. 
In 1909, by such methods of computation as are available, the 
whole herd of seals numbers approximately 133,000, while the catch 
of bachelors was 14,331. Added to the latter, to form an idea of the 
total bachelor yield of the herd, should be 2,000 bachelors marked 
and released, making a total possible catch of bachelors for 1909 of 
16,331. When we contrast this yield of bachelors for 1909 with the 
number of the whole herd in that year, we have a relation of bachelors 
to the whole herd of 1 to 9. The following table will show the 
various ratios for the years mentioned : 
Ratio of Bachelors in Certain Years. 
Year. 
Bachelors 
killed. 
Whole 
herd. 
Bachelors 
released. 
Ratio of 
catch to 
whole herd. 
1897 
20, 766 
13, 128 
14,368 
14, 331 
402, 850 
243, 103 
223,009 
133, 000 
1 to 20. 
1 to 16. 
1 to 14. 
1 to 9. 
1904 
2,054 
2,174 
2,000 
1905 
1909 
This would show that the ratio which the catch of bachelors bears 
to the whole herd has changed from 1 to 20 in 1897 to 1 to 9 in 1909. 
The percentage of bachelors dismissed from the killing field in 1897 
was 41 per cent; in 1904, 44 per cent; in 1905, 40 per cent; and in 
1909, 32 per cent. This shows that killing in 1909 was 9 per cent 
closer than in 1897, and would account partially for the difference in 
the ratio, but not altogether, in my min a. Had killing in 1909 been 
no closer than in 1897 (59 per cent), the whole number killed would 
have been 10,603, which, added to the number marked and released, 
would have made a ratio of 1 to 11 in 1909. 
This demonstrates that there was in 1909 a larger proportion of 
bachelors present to the whole herd than was shown to be present in 
1897. In fact, the proportion seems to have increased gradually 
since 1897. Why this is so is difficult to explain. With a gradually 
diminishing herd, the number of bachelors proportionately has 
increased so that the annual catches of skins do not show the same 
rate of diminution as the herd in general. 
It may be possible that the death rate among young pups has been 
lessened. It has been estimated heretofore that 50 per cent of pups 
die in their first migration, or rather that only 50 per cent reappear as 
yearlings the year after their birth. This was supposed to be due to 
a Report on the Alaskan Fur-Seal Fisheries, by Edwin W. Sims, Department of Commerce and 
Labor, August 3i, 1906. 
68427°— 11 21 
