THE SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2552, 17 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA.

Ai.'COßtiiNii to some accounts the Seal Islands in 1! hiing Straits are affirmed to be getting denuded, but their only crop, 100,000 seals—the full number allowed to be taken—have arrived in San Francisco from Ounalaska, the entire value of the cargo being estimated at £400,000. The truth is that theseals are decreasing everywhere, so that the estimate made by Mr Elliot some years ago, that on thePrybilov Group over 4,000,000 seals live, and that 1,000,000 are born every year, is probably no longer accurate. This seal, it may be well to note, is not the species found in tiie Arctic regions. The animals for the slaughter of which in the vicinity of Jail Mayeu and Newfoundland so many vessels aro fitted out every spring are hairseals, valuable only for their blubber and hides, which arc made into leather. The species which is found so abundantly off the shores of Alaska, and southward as far as Vancouver Islands, and on the Asiatic shore to Japan, is the most valuable of all the various forms of fur seals. It is this animal which supplies the greater quantity of the material for the costly jackets so dear to woman, It forms almost the only available resource of the vast territory which the United States acquired from Russia 20 years ago, and has ever since been puzzled how to utilise. Even here the pelt bearing pinnipeds are not found in any quantity except on the Islands of St George and St Paul, the slaughter having been so incessant that, they disappeared off the places where in earlier times they were seen in myriads. It is to the interest of all concerned that the seal should be duly protected, otherwise it would speedily meet the fate which has befallen it in the Southern and Antarctic Seas, where, within the memory of man, it was almost as numerous as off the shores of Alaska. At present the Alaska Commercial Company are not permitted to take more than 100,000 per a-inutu, and as the " fishery" lasts for only three months in the year they have to make the most of their time, Of the two islands just mentioned, St Paul furnishes about SO,OOO annually, or about one-half of all the fur seals sent to the market. The other 20,000 authorised to be taken by the lessees of the Prybilovs come from St, G 'orge. The Copper and Behring Islands, on the Asiatic side, furnish 25,000. Robbin Island, in the Okotsk Sea, supplies a few hundreds ; and the entire number obtained from the Kuriles and the Japanese Islands, and from the. shores of British Columbia, Vancouver Island and the coast southward to California, cannot amount to more than 2000 or 3000. In the Southern Ocean, sealing is no longer the lucrative business it was in the times when a vessel was safe to fill up at almost any of tbe Antarctic Islands in the course of a few days. However, at the mouth of the La Plata River and on the Crozets, the Shetlands and Falkland's, about Iy.OOO seals are killed every year, though the species haunting these region? is different from that which makes its home in the North Pacific. The rapidity with which the work of slaughter goes on is instanced by what took place on Robbin Island. Thirty years ago the seals were there iu such numbers that the lucky whaler who first lighted on the spot carried off enough to retire on a competency. Vet in a couple of summers the animals were all but exterminated.

When the United States purchased Alaska, the Prybilov Group wore about the only haunt left, and they were by no means a virgin field, for since their discovery in 1786 the work of slaughter had been proceeding merrily. The right of killing seals was then offered to public competition, and in IS7I obtained by tho Alaska Commercial Company for a term of years, the last of which expires in 12 months. The influence of this association has admittedly been good. They employ Aleuts in the work of killing, and besides giving them reasonably well paid employment, support schools and churches for their moral and intellectual improvement. They give forty cents for the labor of taking each skin, so that a large sum is annually divisible among the "hunters." Hunting is, however, scarcely the word to apply to the butchery which goes on, though even this is scientific work compared with the sickening slaughter which characterises sealing in the Arctic Ocean and off the Newfoundland shore j n April. The fur seal is a migrating animal, coming and going at stated seasons, so that no time must be lost. Sometimes tho entire quantity is secured in less than 50 days, the droves being driven up to the " killing grounds," where they are carefully herded. There squads or " pods" of 50 to 200 are eliminated from the drove, aud surrounded by the hunters, armed with heavy wooden clnbs. A single blow on the muzzle is usually enough to stretch the creature lifeless, a thrust of a long sharp knife giving it the coup de giace, in case, during the hurry of the slaughter, it might recover sufficiently to escape. The animals are next skinned, and the skins salted, preparatory to being shipped to the manufacturer, who prepares them for the annual sales in London aud New York, the fiual dressing, clipping, and dyeing being the work of another and more skilful class of artists. Then, for nine months in the year, the " rookeries" are deserted by the seals and most of the native hunters. How long it will be before they are left altogether it is hard to say. Theßhytina, of Behring Strait, was speedily exterminated, and if the slaughter which began before the United States Government granted the lease of the Prybilovs to the Alaska Commercial Company had been permitted to go on, it is questionable whether at this moment they would not be as the New Georgias have been for many a year. For instance, during the interregnum in 1868, 250,000 were kijled by various parties, and they were mostly young animals, with the result that the market became so glutted with small pelts that they were almost unsaleable. Nowadays great care is taken in selecting the proper animals and in attending to the business generally. It is desirable that the business should continue a monopoly, though, we trust, under such improved regulations as to prevent the recurrence of squabbles between the British and American hunters. Such acrimonious incidents as those which have takeu place during the last three or four years serve no purpose except that of the scheming politicians who utilise them for their own ends, or those of their party. —Standard.