
5. Following the resumption of open pelagic sealing in 1942, Japan used an efficient 
new technique which could hardly have been perfected overnight. Thie method made use of a 
single sealing veseel, the teukimbo-sen, instead of the mother ship and small boats previ- 
ously used for sealing. The fur seal catch during 1942-45 cannot be estimated with any 
accuracy but was undoubtedly substantial. Operations in 1944-45 were greatly hampered by 
wartime conditions. Pelagic sealing by the Japanese was forbidden by Occupation authori- 
ties although some illegal sealing probably is continuing. 
6. A limited study and compilation of available data on the distribution, abundance, 
and food habits of fur seals in Japanese waters were undertaken in 1947-49 to obtain in- 
formation of importance to management of the international fur seal resources. This study 
aid not indicate that the seale inflict any significant damage on important Japanese fish- 
eries. Further indication of some sigration from the Pribilof herde into Japanese waters 
wae obtained through recovery of four more seals which had been tagged in the Pribilofs. 
7. The paucity cf the available data reveals that more intensive research is needed 
to determine the fur seal'e status.in Asiatic waters. Such information is necessary as a 
basis for future conferences among the nations concerned so that a fair and equitable 
agreement can be reached on the management of the north Pacific fur seal resources. 
INTRODUCTION 
The hietory of fur sealing in the north Pacific is an unsavory tale. Of its ear 
liest stages, in the late 18th and first half of the 19th centurios, but little is known. 
The heyday of pelagic sealing, which began shortly after the American Civil War and con- 
tinued through the first decade of the 20th century, is well documented in occidental 
writings. Its course of uncontrolled slaughter embellished by hardship, cruelty, murder, 
shipwreck, blood, and gore was finally ended by international legislation, which became 
poseible only because the seals had decreased ao markedly that pelagic sealing was no 
longer profitable. 
The four-power Fur Seal Convention signed in 19]1 was, during ite dO-year life 
span, one of the most successful of all international conservation treaties. The excellent 
results obtained under i*s tenete with the Pribilof Island herds are the finest of object 
lessons, demonstrating how a vanishing species can be saved from extermination by rigid 
protection, and developod into a lucrative industry by wise management. Similar results, 
but on a smaller scale, were obtained by the Russians on the Commander Islands and by the 
Japanese on Robben Island off Sakhalin. 
Today fur seals have become so abundant, thanks to this protection, and the prof-. 
4ts to be made from them are so large that once again they are a subject of international 
concern. The 191] treaty wae abrogated by Japan in 1941, and subsequent international dis- 
harmony has prevented the resumption of negotiations among the four powers concerned, Once 
again open pelagic eealing is a possibility which, unless curbed, threatens to destroy a 
valuable natural resource in the western and northern Pacific and may have even farther 
reaching effects. 
This report has been prepared primarily to clarify the iesues involved, by assen- 
bling the available data on the distribution, abundance, and ecology of the fur seal in 
Japanese waters, with special reference to the species’ importance to the Japanese economy. 
It ie based on investigations corducted in the field in 1948-49 by the staff of the Wild- 
life Branch, Fisheries Division, Natural Resources Section, on unpublished records and sta- 
tistics from the formerly secret files of the Japanese Bureau of Fisheries, 2/ and on a 
thorough review of the available Japanese literature on the subject. 
2/ This bureau, part of the Ministry of Agricuiture and Forestry, bas recently been re- 
organized as the Fisheries Agency. 
