pelagic sealing experimentally. The Ministry sent as official observers on these first 
cruises young men with eome scientific training in fisheries, and their detailed reports 
of the operations (Bibl 59, 60, 65) proved moet inetructive. Other similar studies were 
made on successive voyages the following year (Bibl 67, 72, 73, 74), which established the 
pattern for subsequent Japanese pelagic sealing operations, based on the methods introduced 
by the American and Canadian vessels. 
Up to this time pelagic eealing operations out of Japanese ports were governed by 
the lawe of 1888, These statutes, as was pointed out by the Japanese themselves (Bibl 61, 
77), hampered the operations of the Japanese who had to abide by them but had no effect. 
whatever on the foreign sealers who could not be forced to obey them. On the basis of its 
investigations the government promulgated a new set of reguiationa 2 March 1895 (Bibl 70) 
which were further implemented by Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce regulations issued 
6 December 1895 (Bibl 982). The regulations were not designed to conserve the resource and 
did not attempt in any way to regulate the method of hunting or the amount of catch. They 
imposed practically no restrictions whatever on either Japanese or foreign vessels. They 
simply provided for the registration of all vessele engaged in the trade and required them 
to fly a special flag, to report their arrivals and departures, and to furnish detailed 
statistica on their crews and catches within a epecified period after their return. 
Even before this loosening of the controle the Japanese sealing fleet began to 
expand, and as it expanded the foreign fleet declined. The trend is shown in Table A: 




TABLE A. - NUMBER OF PELAGIC SRALING VESSELS IN JAPANESE WATERS, 1893-97 
Foreign Vessels Total 
Year Canadian United States Domiciled in Japan Foreign Japanese 
22 22 51 
36 39 
22 14 
28 8 
11 2 
SOURCE: Stejneger, L., The Asiatic Pur Seal Ielands and Fur Seal Industry, op cit. 



The marked decline of the foreign vessels received its first impetus from the 
disastrous 1894 season. Although the vessels made good catches, the American and Canadian 
skippers’ lack of familiarity with weather and other conditions off the Japanese coast 
brought many of them to grief. As Stejneger (idem) pointed out, "nearly ten per cent of 
the vessels sealing off Japan and over ten per cent of their crews were lost that year", 
More important reasons for their steady decline after 1895, however, were the increasing 
scarcity of the seals, which made catches so small no profit could be made after a voyage 
across the Pacific, and the expanding competition from the Japanese vessels which could 
operate infinitely more cheaply than foreign ships in these waters. The trend also was 
accelerated by a drop in the price of seal pelts in the London market, then the major 
wholesale outlet for the fur seal catch. 
The American pelagic sealing fleet received its death blow in 1897 when the Unite 
States imposed import restrictions on fur eeal and sea otter skins taken in foreign waters 
(Bibl 119, 122). Thies measure prolibited entry into any American port or the sale on the 
American market of seale and otters taken outeide of American territory. A few American 
cealarc managed to operate surreptitiously under other flags for a number of years (Bibl 
157), but to all intents and purposes pelagic sealing by Americans was thereafter a thing 
of the past. The Canadian sealing fleet, although still active, was unable to meet Japa- 
nese competition in the western Pacific, and its operations in the first decade of the 20t 
century were limited to the northern and eastérn Pacific waters nearer home. 
The Japanese now were free to enjoy pelagic sealing in their own waters without 
foreign competition. After the promulgation of the Deep Sea Fishing Encouragement Law on 
18 
