No. 618.] GREAT BRITAIN. No. 6. Mr. Phelps to Mr. Bayard. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, November 12, 1887. (Received November 22.) SIR: Referring to your instructions numbered 685, of August 19, 1887, I have now to say that owing to the absence from London of Lord Salisbury, secretary of state for foreign affairs, it has not been in my power to obtain his attention to the subject until yesterday. I had then an interview with him, in which I proposed on the part of the Government of the United States that by mutual agreement of the two Governments a code of regulations should be adopted for the pres ervation of the seals in Behring Sea from destruction at improper times and by improper means by the citizens of either country; such agreement to be entirely irrespective of any questions of conflicting jurisdiction in those waters. His lordship promptly acquiesced in this proposal on the part of Great Britain and suggested that I should obtain from my Government and submit to him a sketch of a system of regulations which would be adequate for the purpose. I have therefore to request that I may be furnished as early as possible with a draught of such a code as in your judgment should be adopted. I would suggest also that copies of it be furnished at the same time to the ministers of the United States in Germany, Sweden and Norway, Russia, France, and Japan, in order that it may be under consideration by the Governments of those countries. A mutual agreement between all the Governments interested may thus be reached at an early day. I have, etc., No. 7. E. J. PHELPS. No. 733.] Mr. Bayard to Mr. Phelps. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 25, 1887. SIR: Your No. 618, of the 12th instant, stating the result of your interviews with Lord Salisbury on the subject of the seal fisheries in Behring Sea, is received. The favorable response to our suggestion of mutually agreeing to a code of regulations is very satisfactory, and the subject will have immediate attention. T. F. BAYARD. I am, etc., No. 782.] No. 8. Mr. Bayard to Mr. Phelps. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 7, 1888. SIR: I have received your No. 618, of the 12th of November last, containing an account of your interview with Lord Salisbury of the preceding day, in which his lordship expressed acquiescence in my proposal of an agreement between the United States and Great Britain in regard to the adoption of concurrent regulations for the preservation of fur seals in Behring Sea from extermination by destruction at improper seasons and by improper methods by the citizens of either country. In response to his lordship's suggestion that this Government submit a sketch of a system of regulations for the purpose indicated, it may be expedient, before making a definite proposition, to describe some of the conditions of seal life; and for this purpose it is believed that a concise statement as to that part of the life of the seal which is spent in Behring Sea will be sufficient. All those who have made a study of the seals in Behring Sea are agreed that, on an average, from five to six months, that is to say, from the middle or towards the end of spring till the middle or end of October, are spent by them in those waters in breeding and in rearing their young. During this time they have their rookeries on the islands of St. Paul and St. George, which constitute the Pribyloff group and be long to the United States, and on the Commander Islands, which belong to Russia. But the number of animals resorting to the latter group is small in comparison with that resorting to the former. The rest of the year they are supposed to spend in the open sea south of the Aleutian Islands. Their migration northward, which has been stated as taking place during the spring and till the middle of June, is made through the numerous passes in the long chain of the Aleutian Islands, above which the courses of their travel converge chiefly to the Pribyloff group. During this migration the female seals are so advanced in pregnancy that they generally give birth to their young, which are commonly called pups, within two weeks after reaching the rookeries. Between the time of the birth of the pups and of the emigration of the seals from the isl ands in the autumn the females are occupied in suckling their young; and by far the largest part of the seals found at a distance from the isl ands in Behring Sea during the summer and early autumn are females in search of food, which is made doubly necessary to enable them to suckle their young as well as to support a condition of renewed preg nancy, which begins in a week or a little more after their delivery. The male seals, or bulls, as they are commonly called, require little food while on the islands, where they remain guarding their harems, watching the rookeries, and sustaining existence on the large amount of blubber which they have secreted beneath their skins and which is gradually absorbed during the five or six succeeding months. Moreover, it is impossible to distinguish the male from the female seals in the water, or pregnant females from those that are not so. When the animals are killed in the water with fire-arms many sink at once and are never recovered, and some authorities state that not more than one out of three of those so slaughtered is ever secured. This may, however, be an overestimate of the number lost. It is thus apparent that to permit the destruction of the seals by the use of fire-arms, nets, or other mischievous means in Behring Sea would result in the speedy extermination of the race. There appears to be no difference of opinion on this subject among experts. And the fact is so clearly and forcibly stated in the report of the inspector of fisheries for British Columbia of the 31st of December, 1886, that I will quote therefrom the following pertinent passage: There were killed this year, so far, from 40,000 to 50,000 fur seals, which have been taken by schooners from San Francisco and Victoria. The greater number were killed in Behring Sea, and were nearly all cows or female seals. This enormous catch, with the increase which will take place when the vessels fitting up every year are ready, will, I am afraid, soon deplete our fur-seal fishery, and it is a great pity that such a valuable industry could not in some way be protected. (Report of Thomas Mowat, Inspector of Fisheries for British Columbia; Sessional papers, Vol. 15, No. 16, p. 268; Óttawa, 1887.) The only way of obviating the lamentable result above predicted appears to be by the United States, Great Britian, and other interested powers taking concerted action to prevent their citizens or subjects from killing fur seals with fire-arms, or other destructive weapons, north of 50° of north latitude, and between 160° of longitude west and 170° of longitude east from Greenwich, during the period intervening between April 15 and November 1. To prevent the killing within a marine belt of 40 or 50 miles from the islands during that period would be ineffectual as a preservative measure. This would clearly be so during the approach of the seals to the islands. And after their arrival there such a limit of protection would also be insufficient, since the rapid progress of the seals through the water enables them to go great distances from the islands in so short a time that it has been calculated that an ordinary seal could go to the Aleutian Islands and back, in all a distance of 360 or 400 miles, in less than two days. On the Pribyloff Islands themselves, where the killing is at present under the direction of the Alaska Commercial Company, which by the terms of its contract is not permitted to take over 100,000 skins a year, no females, pups, or old bulls are ever killed, and thus the breeding of the animals is not interfered with. The old bulls are the first to reach the islands, where they await the coming of the females. As the young bulls arrive they are driven away by the old bulls to the sandy part of the islands, by themselves. And these are the animals that are driven inland and there killed by clubbing, so that the skins are not perforated, and discrimination is exercised in each case. That the extermination of the fur seals must soon take place unless they are protected from destruction in Behring Sea is shown by the fate of the animal in other parts of the world, in the absence of concerted action among the nations interested for its preservation. Formerly many thousands of seals were obtained annually from the South Pacific Islands, and from the coasts of Chili and South Africa. They were also common in the Falkland Islands and the adjacent seas. But in those islands, where hundreds of thousands of skins were formerly obtained, there have been taken, according to best statistics, since 1880, less than 1,500 skins. In some places the indiscriminate slaughter, especially by use of fire arms, has in a few years resulted in completely breaking up extensive rookeries. At the present time it is estimated that out of an aggregate yearly yield of 185,000 seals from all parts of the globe, over 130,000, or more than two-thirds, are obtained from the rookeries on the American and Rus sian islands in Behring Sea. Of the remainder, the larger part are taken in Behring Sea, although such taking, at least on such a scale, in that quarter is a comparatively recent thing. But if the killing of the fur seal there with fire-arms, nets, and other destructive implements were permitted, hunters would abandon other and exhausted places of pursuit for the more productive field of Behring Sea, where extermination of this valuable animal would also rapidly ensue. It is manifestly for the interests of all nations that so deplorable a thing should not be allowed to occur. As has already been stated, on the Pribyloff Islands this Government strictly limits the number of seals that may be killed under its own lease to an American company; and citizens of the United States have, during the past year, been arrested and ten American vessels seized for killing fur seals in Behring Sea. England, however, has an especially great interest in this matter, in addition to that which she must feel in preventing the extermination of an animal which contributes so much to the gain and comfort of her people. Nearly all undressed fur-seal skins are sent to London, where they are dressed and dyed for the market, and where many of them are sold. It is stated that at least 10,000 people in that city find profitable employment in this work; far more than the total number of people engaged in hunting the fur seal in every part of the world. At the Pribyloff Islands it is believed that there are not more than 400 persons so engaged; at Commander Islands, not more than 300; in the Northwest coast fishery, not more than 525 Índian hunters and 100 whites; and in the Cape Horn fishery, not more than 400 persons, of whom perhaps 300 are Chilians. Great Britain, therefore, in co-operating with the United States to prevent the destruction of fur seals in Behring Sea would also be perpetuating an extensive and valuable industry in which her own citizens have the most lucrative share. I inclose for your information copy of a memorandum on the fur-seal fisheries of the world, prepared by Mr. A. Howard Clark, in response to a request made by this Department to the U. S. Fish Commissioner. I inclose also, for your further information, copy of a letter to me, dated December 3d last, from Mr. Henry W. Elliott, who has spent much time in Alaska, engaged in the study of seal life, upon which he is well known as an authority. I desire to call your especial attention to what is said by Mr. Elliott in respect to the new method of catching the seals with nets. As the subject of this dispatch is one of great importance and of immediate urgency, I will ask that you give it as early attention as possible. T. F. BAYARD. I am, etc., [Inclosure 1 in No. 782.] Review of the fur-seal fisheries of the world in 1837. BY A. HOWARD CLARK. In the Encyclopædia Britannica, ninth edition, the fur-seal fisheries are credited with an annual yield of 185,000 skins, of which 100,000 are said to be obtained from the Pribyloff Islands, 30,000 from the Commander Islands, 15,000 from the straits of Juan de Fuca and vicinity, 12,000 from the Lobos Islands, 15,000 from Patagonia and outlying islands, 500 from the Falkland Islands, 10,000 from the Cape of Good Hope and places thereabout, and 2,500 from islands belonging to Japan. The above statistics were communicated by me to the author of the article "Seal Fisheries" in the Encyclopædia and had been carefully verified by the latest official records and by a personal interview with Messrs. C. M. Lampson & Co., of London, one of the principal fur houses of the world, and by whom most of the annual production of fur seal-skins are placed upon the market. A review of the subject at this time (January, 1988) necessitates but a slight change in the annual production and in the apportionment to the several fisheries. Some of the fisheries have increased while others have decreased. Taking the average annual yield from 1880 to date, I find that the total production is now 192,457 skins, obtained as follows: Annual yield of fur-seal fisheries. Fur-seal skins. Pribyloff Islands, Behring Sea.... Commander Islands and Robben Reef.. 94, 967 Islands belonging to Japan... 41,893 British and American sealing fleets on northwest coast of America (including 4,000 catch at Cape Flattery and Behring Sea). 25,000 Lobos Islands at mouth of Rio de la Plata... 12,385 Cape of Good Hope, including islands in Southern Indian Ocean. Cape Horn region.. Falkland Islands.. Total...... 192, 457 The statistics for the Pribyloff and Commander Islands are compiled from reports of the Alaska Commercial Company, Mr. Elliott's reports in volume 8, Tenth Census, and in section 5, U. S. Fish Commission report, and trade reports of annual sales in London (Fur Trade Review, published monthly at No. 11 Bond street, New York). The northwest coast statistics are from the annual reports of the department of fisheries of Canada and from Mr. Swan's report in section 5, volume 2, of the quarto report of the U. S. Fish Commission. For Japan, Lobos Islands, Cape of Good Hope, and Falkland Islands the statistics are from the "Annual Statements of the Trade of the United Kingdom with foreign countries and British possessions as presented to Parliament." Statistics for Cape Horn region are from sealing merchants of Stonington and New London, Conn. The details of the fisheries for a series of years are shown in the following table: (As to the number of persons employed, it is not possible to give details in all cases. At Pribyloff Islands in 1880 there were 372 Aleuts and 18 whites. At Commander Islands there are about 300 persons; in the northwest coast fishery 523 Indian hunters and 100 whites, and in the Cape Horn fishery about 400 whites, of whom perhaps 300 are Chilians.) Number of fur-seal skins from principal fisheries, 1871 to 1887. The second point upon which information is requested is "that of the destruction of the fur seal, resulting either in its extermination or the diminution of its yield, in places where it formerly abounded,” etc. See Schedule A. Total 1870 to 1880, 92,750; average, 9,275. § Returns not received. |