an excellent source of furs and fat, both vitally needed by a war machine, the treaty 
restrictions had somehow to be overcome. They could not be ignored entirely without en- 
dangering international amity, which still had to be maintained. And as pelagic sealing 
operations pursued on a large enough ecale to be worthwhile could not be hidden entirely, 
they had somehow to be legalised without incurring the undue suspicion and enmity of the 
United States and Great Britain. This necessitated finding a logical and justifiable 
excuse for abrogating the treaty. 
The detailed balance sheet of the Japanese fur seal account under the treaty kept 
by the Bureau of Fisheries (summarized in Appendix B, Table 4) atill showed a deficit at 
this time. This account was handicapped at ite start in 1912 by the tremendous initial 
outlay for the indemnities paid to the pelagic sealers. The annual balance between expen- 
ditures for patrolling the sealing waters and managing Robben Ieland on the one hand, and 
the revenue from Robben Island and the land sealing receipte from Russia and the United 
States under the treaty on the other, had not yet overcome thie initial debit. But the 
trend was favorable, and the steadily inoreasing receipts from the Pribilofe foretold the 
eventual solvency which wae finally attained in 1937, 
The most promising gambit in the campaign to nullify the treaty wae to develop 
the fishermen's complaint that seale are injurious to other fisheries in which Japan had 
a greater interest. Fishermen the world around regard all fieh eating mammale and birde 
as unwelcome competitors, with very few exceptions. The very presence of fur seale in the 
fishermen's nets was considered sufficient evidence against them, and politicians are al- 
ways prone to accept the complaints of their constituents on such mattere without further 
verification of the facte. Wo detailed studies of the food habite of fur seals in the 
weetern Pacific have ever been made, but American researches had already shown the fur 
seeal's diet to consist mainly of squid, pollack,and other species of little or no impor 
tance to American fisheries. However, it ie difficult to conceive of any catchable fish 
or other marine product which ie not of at least some consequence to the Japanese economy. 
Gradually Japan built up her case. The Robben Island herd was prospering, and so 
apparently were the Commander herds now'that protection was once again afforded then. 
Quite naturally seale wintering in the waters off Japan showed a corresponding rise in 
numbers. However, neither the Robben nor the Commander herds had increased in proportion 
to the phenomenal multiplication of the Pribilof herds in the same period. The increase 
in the seale wintering off Japan seemed far greater than could be accounted for by the 
number of seals known to breed on the Asiatic rookeries, and the claim was now made that 
the apparent surplus could come only from the Pribilofe (Bibl 275). 
That some Pribilof seals might winter in Japanese waters had long been suspected. 
The possibility was firet noted in 1894 (Bibl 48), but the theeis was unsupported by con- 
crete evidence and was ignored by all western authorities. The American management of the 
Pribilof herd was and still is based on the premise that the northern fur seals are divided 
into two groups, possibly three. Animals from the three respective rookeries were de- 
scribed originally as specifically dietinct, and most systematists still consider them as 
at least racially separate. As the Japanese suggested in 1933 (Bibl 284), re-examination 
of the morphological criteria separating these supposedly different subspecies now seens 
advisable. Recent discoveries, to be diecussed later, suggest that the constancy of their 
reportedly distinctive characteristics may be open to question. 
At any rate, western authorities still contend that all the Pribilof seale nigrate 
down the eastern eide of the Pacific to winter in waters off Canada and the United States, 
that the Robben and Commander herds migrate southward to watere off Japan, and that no exz- 
tensive intermingling occurs on the wintering grounds between the two groups. Thie theory, 
if true, would greatly simplify the management of the Pribilof herds by allowing any Japa- 
nese or Russia: activities east of the date line to be disregarded as of no consequence to 
the Pribilof herde. 
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