
APPENDIX A 
Effect of sealing on fluctuations in herd size, 
1786 — 1951 

Historical 
The question has been raised, "Why does the Government now 
take only about 60,000 to 70,000 seals annually when it is an historical 
fact that approximately 115,000 seals were taken each year during the 
20-year period, 1871 to 1890? Since the herd has now recovered, 
shouldn't it yield at least 100,000 seals a year?" Consideration of 
the recorded fluctuations of the herd provides the answer. 
In 1786-87, when the Pribilofs were discovered, the size of 
the seal populetion under primitive conditions was probably 2,500,000. 
This figure is based upon the modern size of the herd, with an allowance 
for several small extinct rookeries, and upon the estimated number of 
males which, were they spared by man, would live to swell the herd popu-— 
lation. Sims (1906, p. 38) made the same estimate of 2,500,000 for the 
size of the herd at the time of its discovery. The early history of 
sealing under Russian management from 1786 to 1837 is presented by 
Veniaminof (in Elliott, 1881, pp. 140-145). Interpretations are pre- 
sented by Elliott, by Sims (1906), by Jordan (1898, pt. 1, pp. 23-28), 
and by Osgood, Preble, and Parker (1915, pp. 21-22). 
From the start and until about 1835, sealing operations were 
extravagant, wasteful, and largely unrecorded. The reported take of 
skins (table 16) is certainly far too low. From time to time Russian 
overseers recognized the dangers of overexploitation and placed a 
temporary ban on killing. By 1834, the herd had dwindled to the lowest 
point under Russian jurisdiction, possibly to less than a million animals. 
The stringent ban on killing (the "zapooski") was applied in 1835. After 
a rest of 7 years, when fewer than 10,000 skins were taken annually, the 
kill was gradually increased. In 1867, the last year of Russian occupa- 
tion, 75,000 seals were killed. After the initial period of unrestricted 
killing the teke of seals throughout the Russian regime appears to have 
been conservative. Even during the period 1835 to 1867 for which the 
statistics are considered most reliable, the mean annual kill was only 
20,000, less than one-third the present yearly crop. 
During the first year of American occupation (1868), the take 
was 242,000 seals! The next year it was 87,000. This slaughter inaugu- 
rated a long period of poorly controlled sealing on land and at sea, which 
wes to end 40 years later with the herd at less than one-tenth of its 
primitive size. From 1870 to 1889 the Alaska Commercial Company, and from 
1890 to 1909 the North American Commercial Company, leased the privilege 
of taking sealskins on the Pribilof Islands. During this 40-year period, 
pelagic sealing reached its greatest intensity. In 1897, Jordan (1898, 
part 1, p. 100) estimated the herd size at 400,000, a figure which seems 
hh 
