RESPITE FOR SEALS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1943, Page 4

RESPITE FOR SEALS

IN CANADIAN ROOKERIES HUNTERS BUSY ELSEWHERE OTHER KINDS OF GAME ALSO BENEFITING “Fur seals never heard of the war. but hundreds of them owe their lives to it just the same," says the bulletin of the Canadian Department of Fisheries. The bulletin states that not a single fur seal was taken in British Columbia waters in 1942, and none in 1941, although before that hundreds were killed every year—s 76 of them in 1940 for instance —as they made their migratory way along the coast toward the Pribilof Island rookeries. The seals went safe in 1942 and 1941 because the Indians of British Columbia are the only Canadians permitted by international agreement to hunt these animals in the waters of the North Pacific, and these same Indian hunters have either enlisted or become so busy as a result of war time s increased employment opportunities that they have no time for sealing. Although a number of seals were taken off British Columbia every year in pre-war days, the great bulk of the annual “kill” was made at the Pribilof Islands by hunters employed by the United States Government. Under an international treaty which became operative in 1911, pelagic sealing, or in other words, hunting fur seals at sea, was forbidden in the treaty waters, except to Indians, Aleuts or other aborigines dwelling on the coasts of the adjacent areas. At the Pribilof rookeries, where the herds go ashore, the killing was done by the United States Government, and a specified percentage of each year’s take of pelts was handed over to Canada by the Washington authorities. That old treaty has now disappeared, but in its place there is a provisional agreement between Canada and the United States which is much the same as the treaty in its effect but entitles the Dominion to an increased share of skins. It may be stated that seals are not the only type of fauna which are being benefited by the war. Reports from every part of Canada indicate that practically all wild life, including game animals and birds, are showing an appreciable increase due to the scarcity of hunters, the bulk of whom are at the present time engaged in the pursuit of larger game. The difficulty of securing firearms and small arms ammunition, the scarcity of gasoline and other factors, contribute to the situation. It is for instance stated that those who tire lucky enough to enjoy the duck shooting season which opens in most of the provinces in September will find the birds more than usually plentiful. It is also reported that out west the Prairie chicken, one of the finest of Canada’s game birds, which faced almost extinction in recent years, is coming back into its own again, and that Hungarian partridges, a comparatively recent import, are increasing astonishingly, as are pheasants (mostly in the eastern provinces) and the ordinary partridge. The cariboo herds of the north, the new reindeer herd brought some years ago from Alaska, the buffalo which were set free from the Wainwright parks in Alberta to roam with their cousins, the wood buffalo in the North-West Territories, all are said to be on the increase. The elk of course has for many years past been highly protected.