£6 £■ 3 ; 5e 1/3 
 
 THE STORY OF THE PRIBILOF FUR SEALS 
 
 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 
 
 NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/storyofpribiloffOOunit 
 
The northern fur seal is one of the world's most fascinating creatures. 
 The animal itself, however, is no more fascinating than the story of its 
 life since man first interjected himself into the seal's habitat. It is 
 a story of both flagrant plunder and outstanding international wildlife 
 conservation. 
 
 This era is one in which man has begun to appraise the price he has paid 
 for progress, in the form of damaged environment and diminished resources. 
 Even the very young talk knowledgeably of such things as endangered species, 
 depletion and extinction. The story of the northern fur seal and 
 its Pribilof Islands home stands out as an exciting and encouraging example 
 of what can be accomplished through sound management, intensive research, 
 and international cooperation. From a point at which this valuable 
 resource had been hunted to near extinction by indiscriminate killing 
 in the open sea, the northern fur seal has been nurtured back to nearly 
 an optimum population level. The fur seal population dropped to a point 
 below 300,000 in 1910. Today the Alaska fur seal herd numbers an 
 estimated 1.4 million animals, a healthy population from which surplus 
 young males are selectively harvested on St. Paul Island. It is one of 
 the most dramatic conservation achievements recorded since man first 
 began making serious efforts to undo some of the damage he has inflicted 
 on his environment and the living natural resources it sustains. 
 
Breeding Grounds of the Fur Seal 
 
 In addition to the Pribilof Islands, northern fur seals presently breed in 
 large numbers on the Commander Islands at the Soviet end of the Aleutian 
 chain, and on Robben Island off Sakhalin. Small populations of fur seals 
 breed on the Kuril Islands, between Kamchatka and Hokkaido, and on San 
 Miguel Island and Castle Rock off California. Approximately 80 percent 
 of the world population, however, breeds on the Pribilof Islands of St. 
 Paul, St. George and Sea Lion Rock. 
 
 The conservation of this migratory herd of fur seals is governed by an 
 international agreement between the United States, Canada, Japan, and 
 the Soviet Union. The United States has held jurisdiction oyer the 
 Pribilofs since the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 and has 
 closely managed the seal herd since 1911 through various Federal agencies, 
 currently the National Marine Fisheries Service. Previously the resource 
 was not always protected, and at several points in its history, the 
 northern fur seal was exploited to the brink of extinction. 
 
 Fur Sealing History 
 
 The story of modern man's involvement with the fur seal begins in the 18th 
 century. North American Indians and Aleuts had been taking fur seals 
 for many centuries previously for subsistence purposes and later for sale 
 of the skins to traders. George Wilhelm Steller, a German naturalist in 
 the service of Imperial Russia, was marooned on Bering Island in 1741. 
 The wrecked vessel, commanded by Vitus Bering, was returning to Kamchatka 
 
after a voyage of exploration to North America. Intrigued by the 
 elaborate social structure of the seal and sea lion herds which thronged 
 the island, Steller built an observation blinc overlooking a fur seal 
 rookery. Here, he made a series of remarkably precise observations which 
 were published in 1751-one of the earliest behavior analyses of any 
 mamma 1 . 
 
 About 40 years later, adventurous sailing skippers from New England and 
 Europe discovered the commercial possibilities in the large herds of 
 southern fur seals along the coast of South America, Antarctica, and 
 South Africa. During the next half century, fur seal rookeries on Islo 
 Alejandro Selkirk (formerly Mas Afuera), Juan Fernandez, the South 
 Shetlands, Prince Edward, the Antipodes, and many other islands, were 
 destroyed as fast as they were discovered. Literally millions of pelts 
 were taken and populations of fur seals south of the Equator were decimated 
 rapidly. Some small groups survived, however, and still live off the 
 coasts of South Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand, the 
 Galapagos Islands, and some sub-Antarctic islands. Some have fully 
 recovered , such as the South African fur seal. 
 
 The next major phase in the chronology of the fur seal developed farther 
 north where the Russians had observed hordes of seals swimming north- 
 ward each spring through the passes of the Aleutian Islands, disappear- 
 ing into the fog and mist of the Bering Sea. 
 
In 1783, Gerassim Pribilof, navigator in the service of Imperial Russia, 
 joined the search for breeding grounds outside the Commander Islands. 
 His discovery of St. George Island in 1786 and St. Paul in 1787 within the 
 group of islands that now bears his name, exposed the principal breeding 
 grounds and sanctuary of the northern fur seal to exploitation by man. 
 The unrestricted killing of seemingly uncountable numbers began, following 
 virtually the same pattern which nearly eliminated the southern fur seal. 
 Overnight the teeming rookeries of the Pribilofs became a source of 
 sealskins for the entire world, and an estimated 2.5 million pelts were 
 taken during the next few decades. 
 
 During this period, harvesting was uncontrolled and breeding females 
 were unprotected. In 1834, when it was obvious that the herd was facing 
 annihilation, Russia forbade the killing of females-and the fur seal 
 population began to recover. By 1867, when the United States purchased 
 Alaska from Russia, including the Pribilofs, the herd was reported to be 
 large and thriving. 
 
 During the first two years of U.S. jurisdiction, a number of indepen- 
 dent sealing companies were allowed to operate on the islands and in the 
 first season an estimated 200,000 to 300, 000 skins were taken, a number 
 now considered to be excessive for healthy management of the herd. To 
 halt this destruction, Congress in 1869 established the Pribilofs as a 
 special reservation to protect the animals while they were on their 
 breeding grounds, and in addition provided for a controlled harvest. The 
 U.S. Treasury Department was authorized to award the first of two 
 
consecutive 20-year leases for sealing on the islands by private 
 companies and was charged with seeing that the lessees spared the females 
 and took only that number of young males specified by the Government. 
 Under the first 20-year lease the lessee was authorized to take 100,000 
 young males each year and in fact harvested just under two million seal- 
 skins during the contract period. The company awarded the second lease 
 was able to take only 342,651 seals probably because the 
 contract period coincided with the peak of pelagic sealing. This totally 
 unregulated operation, taking mostly females, was responsible for reducing 
 the Pribilof herd to a remnant of its former size. 
 
 Fans of Jack London will recall that the author's classic "Sea Wolf" was 
 a tale of swashbuckling open-sea sealing. Swashbuckling it may have been; 
 devastating to the seal population it definitely was. Pelagic sealing, 
 primarily by sealers from the United States, Canada, and Japan, reached 
 its peak in 1894 when 61,838 sealskins were taken. From 1889 to 1909, over 
 600,000 animals were taken—and at least that many or more were lost after 
 being wounded and not recovered. The herd had now been reduced from an 
 estimated two million to probably 300,000. 
 
 Pelagic sealing was even more disastrous to the Alaska herd than the catch 
 data indicate. Sealers working the high seas killed indiscriminately, 
 without regard to age or sex. Since females out-numbered males, because 
 of the distribution of the sexes at sea, from 60 to 80 percent of the 
 pelagic harvest consisted of females. Not only was all future reproduction 
 lost from the females killed, but dependent pups were left to starve on land 
 
because a mother seal, with rare exceptions, nurses only her own pup . 
 
 Pelagic sealing was halted in July 1911 as part of an international 
 agreement when the United States, Great Britain (for Canada), Japan, and 
 Russia, meeting in Washington, concluded a convention for protection of 
 the North Pacific fur seals. In exchange for a ban on pelagic sealing, 
 the United States and Russia agreed to provide Japan and Great Britain each 
 with 15 percent of their sealskin harvests on rookery islands under their 
 jurisdiction. Japan, in turn, agreed to give the United States, Great 
 Britain, and Russia each 10 percent of its annual harvest on Robben Island. 
 Thus, the 1911 agreement became the instrument that finally gave much- 
 needed protection to the seal herds and also provided an economic gain 
 for the countries involved. It was the first significant step toward the 
 type of international cooperation required for survival of the fur seal. 
 
 Since 1910, the harvest of Alaska fur seals has been supervised and carried 
 out by the Federal Government, now by the Department of Commerce's National 
 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the National Marine 
 Fisheries Service. Previously the Service's predecessor agencies carried 
 out this responsibility; first the Bureau of Fisheries in the Department 
 of Commerce and then the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Fish and Wildlife 
 Service, Department of the Interior. 
 
 To rebuild the depleted herd, Congress placed a ban on commercial killing 
 of fur seals on the Pribilofs from 1912 to 1917. Some seals were taken 
 each year for food for the residents of the islands. Since 1917, the fur 
 seal harvest has been under strict control, normally with only young males 
 taken in numbers determined to be surplus to maintenance of the herd. Under 
 
this management, the population increased rapidly and by the 
 late 1930' s had become so abundant that Japan became concerned about the 
 predatory effects of the large fur seal herds on her valuable commercial 
 fisheries. In 1940 Japan announced intention to abrogate the fur seal treaty, 
 which she did in October 1941. 
 
 From 1942 until 1957, the Pribilof Islands herd was protected in the 
 central and eastern North Pacific Ocean by a provisional agreement between 
 Canada and the United States, which provided Canada with 20 percent of the 
 annual Pribilof sealskin harvest. Presumably there were no pelagic sealing 
 operations during this period, except for a few thousand seals taken 
 annually by the Japanese in the western North Pacific. 
 
 A new interim North Pacific Fur Seal Convention similar to the 1911 
 Convention was concluded in February 1957 by Canada (rather than Great 
 Britain), Japan, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the United 
 States. It established a Fur Seal Commission comprised of representatives 
 of the four governments to coordinate research and management of the North 
 Pacific fur seal resource. This convention, which is still in existence, 
 also provides that Canada and Japan each receive 15 percent of the sealskins 
 taken commercially by the United States on the Pribilofs and by the U.S.S.R. 
 on the Commander Islands and Robben Island, which Japan lost to the U.S.S.R. 
 as a result of World War II treaties. The U.S.S.R. now has control of all 
 fur seal rookeries off the Asian coast. The Commission provided for a Stand- 
 ing Scientific Committee which meets annually to recommend research 
 programs and harvesting rates. Invariably the Committee's recommendations 
 
are adopted by the Commission. 
 
 The Fur Seal Act of 1966, which put the convention into effect domes- 
 tically, renewed the authority of the Secretary of- the Interior to provide 
 for the conservation and protection of the fur seal and to administer the 
 Pribilof Islands as a Federal reservation. In October 1970, that authority 
 was transferred to the Department of Commerce where the National Marine 
 Fisheries Service, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
 Administration, now supervises the harvest of fur seals on St. Paul Island, 
 largest of the Pribilof group. 
 
 In 1973, the United States proposed to the Commission a major research 
 program which involved setting aside St. George Island as a research 
 reserve. The Commission adopted this recommendation. Seals were last 
 harvested for commercial purposes on St. George in 1972, and an intensive 
 research program was initiated on the Pribilof Islands in 1973 to compare 
 population dynamics and behavior between the harvested population on St. 
 Paul and unharvested population on St. George. Results of this study are 
 expected to make a significant contribution to the scientific knowledge 
 required to maintain northern fur seal herds at the optimum level. 
 
 Physical Characteristics 
 
 The fur seal's physical features are remarkably adapted to meet its needs, 
 particularly at sea. The beautiful fur, of such quality that it almost 
 brought about the seal's extinction, has over 300,000 hairs per square inch 
 and is so impermeable to water that the skin remains dry even when the seal 
 rubs or scratches itself in the water. 
 
 10 
 
Body temperature is about 100° F (38° C) and overheating from unusual 
 exertion or sunshine when on land causes obvious discomfort. Body 
 temperature above 107° F (42° C) brings on heat prostration and usually 
 death. 
 
 The eyes are relatively large and the seal can see ^/ery well at night; 
 it feeds primarily at night since many important food species rise 
 to the upper water layers during darkness. The fur seal feeds mainly on 
 small schooling fishes such as anchovy, capelin, and herring, but will 
 take advantage of whatever species are available, generally pollock in 
 the Pribilof Islands area. In deep water areas, squid is a mainstay of 
 its diet. Anchovy, hake, saury, and rockfish are other principal foods 
 off California and Oregon. Off the coast of Washington, herring, rockfish, 
 salmon, and anchovy are leading foods, while herring and walleye pollock 
 make up a major part of its diet off southeastern Alaska. Capelin and 
 sand lance are important foods in the Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands 
 passess, and the Bering Sea. However, pollock is especially important 
 in the Bering Sea. Analyses of stomach contents indicate that the fur 
 seal feeds on at least 54 species of fish and nine species of squid. The 
 fur seal diet is similar in the western North Pacific Ocean, Sea of Japan, 
 and Okhotsk Sea. 
 
 Other physical characteristics help the seal to survive at sea. Its 
 nostrils can be voluntarily closed, and the external ears are small, 
 tightly rolled cylinders each with a narrow, waxy orifice that prevents the 
 entrance of water. Its 36 teeth are arranged so that each lower incisor 
 
 11 
 
Figure 1. An adult male approaching a female and her pup, 
 
 12 
 
fits into a notch in an upper incisor and the upper molars and premolars 
 interlock with the lowers, giving the seal such an efficient bite that no 
 fish or squid can escape. 
 
 Seals vary considerably in size and weight depending on sex and age (Fig. 1) 
 A newborn pup weighs 10 to 20 pounds (4.4-5.4 kg) and, if it survives, will 
 grow into a mature female weighing 95 to 110 pounds (43.1-49.9 kg) or an 
 adult male weighing from 400 to over 600 pounds (181.4-272.2 kg). Seals 
 selected for commercial harvesting are usually three and four year old 
 males averaging 62 pounds (28.1 kg) and 78 pounds (35.4 kg) respectively. 
 At birth, the average male is 26 inches (66 cm) long, but the female is an 
 inch (2. 5. cm) shorter. A large adult female measures 56 inches (142 cm), 
 tip of nose to tip of tail; a male, 84 inches (213 cm). 
 
 The color of a seal's fur varies considerably. The females and young males 
 are gray when dry and appear black when wet. After a few days ashore during 
 the breeding season, the fur of the breeding female is stained to a yellow- 
 ish-brown color by mud and excrement on the rookeries. Although cleaned 
 somewhat during trips to sea, the pelage is not restored to its original 
 color until molt occurs. Pups are black when born in early summer but 
 turn gray in September and October as a result of their first molt. Males 
 over six years old are predominantly brownish-black, but vary greatly and 
 may be dark gray or reddish brown. The male begins to develop a short 
 bushy mane on his shoulders and neck at about six years of age. 
 
 13 
 
Distribution of the Northern Fur Seal 
 
 The northern fur seal is a widely ranging mammal with migratory routes 
 extending down both sides of the North Pacific ocean to about 32° North 
 Latitude. On the eastern side, fur seals migrate southward to the 
 Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, California. In the western Pacific 
 Ocean, they range from the Commander Islands to seas southwest of Tokyo on 
 northern Honshu and into the Sea of Japan and Sea of Okhotsk. 
 
 Seals are most frequently found from 10 to 100 miles (16-145 km) offshore; 
 in most abundant numbers between 30 and 70 miles (48-113 km). Major 
 areas of concentration off North America are the Farallon Grounds extending 
 from Point Conception to Point Arena off California, the Vancouver Grounds 
 reaching .from south of the Columbia River to the north end of Vancouver 
 Island, the Fairweather Grounds. Seals also congregate on Portlock Bank 
 off Kodiak Island and near the Sanak Islands. Full grown males winter 
 principally in Alaskan waters and are seen most frequently in the Gulf of 
 Alaska. 
 
 International research reveals a considerable amount of intermixing between 
 seals from Americaiand Asian islands. Tagging studies suggest that 
 roughly 20 to 30 percent of the seals of ages three to five years that are 
 found off the coast of Japan in winter and spring come from the Pribilof 
 Islands. Also it appears that male seals from the Commander Islands make 
 up about one percent of the annual commercial kill of seals on the Pribilofs 
 and that the Pribilofs contribute about 10 to 25 percent of the seals 
 harvested each year on the Commander Islands. Over 96 percent of the fur 
 
 14 
 
seals found off Western North America are from the Pribilof Islands. 
 
 Unless sick or injured, fur seals rarely touch land from the time they 
 leave their rookery islands in the fall until they return the following 
 year. Most people living along coastal areas of the Western United States 
 are unaware that many thousands of fur seals feed and rest for several 
 winter months in the nearby ocean, particularly off California. They often 
 are seen asleep on the ocean surface, floating on their side or back, with 
 all four flippers folded or with one or more stretched into the air. On the 
 island rookeries, however, all such languor disappears and activity continues 
 unabated, day and night. 
 
 Fur Seal Reproduction 
 
 Snowdrifts have not melted completely on the mist-shrouded Pribilofs when, 
 in late May and early June, the big breeding males begin to appear on the 
 three islands that have rookeries: St. Paul, St. George, and Sea Lion Rock. 
 Between 10 and 17 years of age and heavy with fat from the long winter's 
 feeding, the males lumber ashore where each establishes his own individual 
 territory. Other adult males enter a belligerent "beachmaster's" personal 
 territory only at considerable risk. 
 
 The adult males enjoy a brief period of rest on land but after mid-June 
 when the females begin to arrive, there is little respite for the huge 
 "beachmasters" . Each male vigorously defends his territory and intercepts 
 as many of the relatively docile mature females as he can when they attempt 
 to pass nearby on their way from the sea onto the rookery. The number of 
 
 15 
 
females in a male's territory varies from 1 to 100 (Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5), but 
 the average is about 60. Day and night the air is filled with the bleating 
 of females and young and the roars of the mighty "beachmasters" as each 
 defends his territory against his neighbor and keeps the unbred females 
 "home" through intimidation or force. Battles between males are frequent 
 and sometimes savage. From May until the end of the breeding season, they 
 gradually lose the layers of fat with which they came ashore (Fig. 6). 
 
 After a one year gestation period, the pregnant female gives birth to a 
 12-pound pup within 48 hours after she comes on land, and mates again 
 within a week. Because of an unusual reproductive cycle, however, develop- 
 ment of her newly formed embryo is halted at an early stage for about four 
 months, or until November, when implantation in the uterus occurs and fetal 
 growth begins anew. 
 
 Fur seal pups can swim at birth. They first venture into the water when 
 
 about four weeks old, and gradually increase their stay there through the 
 
 weeks ahead. In November the pups leave the rookeries on a swim destined 
 to last as long as two years for some. 
 
 The pups are active and precocious, with wide-open eyes. Coats of black 
 hair are molted and replaced by fur in the autumn. They depend entirely on 
 the mother's milk for food and the female generally stays close to her 
 pup for several days, then goes to sea to feed where she may remain for a 
 week and travel as far as 200 miles from the rookery. When she returns, 
 the pup takes on several times more milk than would a human infant of 
 the same body weight. The pup must obtain enough of the rick milk, 
 
 16 
 
Figure 2. 13 JUNE - By mid-June most of the "beachmasters" have 
 established their territories and await the arrival of the females. 
 Most fur seals of breeding age return to the rookery of their birth. 
 
 17 
 

 
 
 
 -^" 
 
 
 Figure 3. 28 JUNE 
 
 By late June the first females arrive and the 
 
 adult males begin to gather them into their territories. The pups are 
 born soon after the females come ashore. As the pups grow stronger, they 
 eventually form groups or pods and wander over the rookery, while their 
 mothers spend much time at sea searching for food. 
 
 18 
 
Figure 4. 8 JULY - In early July the groups remain closely knit on the 
 crowded rookeries. 
 
 19 
 
Figure 5. 3 AUGUST - In late July or early August the organized social 
 structure begins to break up and the animals start to spread out. 
 
 20 
 
Figure 6. Adult male seal 
 
 21 
 
containing about 50 percent butterfat, to survive between the widely- 
 spaced feedings. The mother seal feeds only her own pup and, despite 
 lengthy absences between nursings, finds her own among the thousands of 
 pups on the rookery. 
 
 The female seals nurse their young for three to four months, and are 
 completely protected on the rookery from all human activity except minor 
 disturbances associated with scientific research to enumerate the population 
 
 As the weather worsens in November, the fur seals leave their Pribilof 
 breedings grounds to spend the next several months at sea, until the 
 reproductive cycle begins anew the following summer. 
 
 Early mortality among the pups is high. Many succumb to disease, injury, 
 and malnutrition on the islands before starting their migration; others 
 become prey for northern sea lions and presumably to killer whales and 
 sharks; still more are lost in storms at sea. Yet more than enough young 
 seals survive each year to maintain a large, healthy herd. 
 
 Sealing Operations on the Pribilofs 
 
 Young subadult male seals up to nine years of age, not yet strong enough 
 or old enough to compete with the fully matured beachmasters, congregate 
 on hauling grounds apart from the rookeries (Fig. 7). An occasional 
 brave subadult as young as age seven years may attract a female or two 
 and become part of the breeding structure, but most of the younger males 
 are not permitted on the rookeries until the active breeding season ends 
 in early August. At this time, some young females making their first 
 
 22 
 

 #^^ T ** -4 ] 
 
 Figure 7. A part of the Tolstoi Rookery on St. Paul Island showing the 
 social structure of northern fur seals during the breeding season. In 
 the foreground are the breeding seals and pups. Beyond the margin of 
 the breeding area are massed the idle males, seven to nine years old. 
 Still other idle males wait attentively just offshore, apparently for an 
 opportunity to barge into the breeding area to forcefully displace an 
 exhausted beachmaster. 
 
 23 
 
appearance on the rookeries may breed with these young males. 
 
 It is from these hauling grounds that the younger fur seals, primarily 
 three and four year old male animals, are driven for the annual harvest of 
 skins. Because the number of males and females at birth is approximately 
 equal, and since adult males control and breed an average of 60 females 
 each, the majority of these young males are surplus to proper maintenance 
 of the herd. Thus a properly managed taking of young males does not 
 endanger the reproductive capacity of the herd. 
 
 National Marine Fisheries Service managers and scientists travel to the 
 Pribilof Islands each year to supervise the harvest of fur seals and to 
 carry out biological research on these animals. Son? of the Aleut residents 
 work in all phases of the harvest and in parts of the scientific research 
 program. 
 
 Removing subadult male seals from the hauling grounds is comparatively 
 easy. Since they are apart from the rookery, harvest acts do not disturb 
 breeding animals on the rookeries. Daybreak of each morning from late 
 June until late July finds the Aleut sealers on one or more hauling 
 grounds. From these hauling areas, they drive the seals a short distance 
 inland from the beaches to suitable harvesting grounds. Because of their 
 insulating fur, the seals are driven slowly and given rest periods as 
 needed to avoid discomfort and possible heat prostration. Small pods con- 
 taining about six seals are separated from the main group and herded to the 
 stunners where each animal is dispatched by first stunning it with a 
 single blow to the head, then immediately severing the main blood vessels 
 
 24 
 
of the heart. Blood pressure immediately drops to zero and death is 
 virtually instantaneous. Females and animals larger or smaller than 
 the size limits set are permitted to escape and rejoin the herd. 
 
 During recent years a great deal of investigation has been done to assure 
 that the method used to harvest seals on the Pribilof Islands is the most 
 humane possible. Various Government-sponsored and non-Government groups 
 have examined the methods used. These groups include the World Federation 
 for the Protection of Animals, a Task Force to Study Alternative Methods 
 of Harvesting Fur Seals, the Virginia Mason Research Foundation, a veterinary 
 panel composed of members of the American Veterinary Medical Association's 
 Research Panel on Euthanasia, and the Battel le Institute of Columbus, Ohio. 
 The conclusions reached were that the method in use is a rapid, highly 
 efficient and humane method of harvesting the fur seals. Various recommen- 
 dations were made to improve the harvesting procedures and these have been 
 adopted. A continuing review of the harvesting methods is maintained as 
 well as close relationship with the American Veterinary Medicine Association 
 and the Department of Agriculture to assure that the National Marine 
 Fisheries Service is familiar with current research and practices regarding 
 the humane killing of domestic livestock and other animals. 
 
 After the pelts are taken, they are transported to a processing plant 
 
 on the island where they are cooled, washed, and the fat or blubber removed 
 
 (Fig. 8). The pelts are then cured in brine, allowed to drain, treated 
 
 with salt and boric acid, packed in containers for shipment and transported 
 
 to other locations in the U.S. for sale and the further processing needed 
 to finish them into high quality furs. The meat is used primarily as 
 
 25 
 
Figure 8. In years past, the fat (blubber) was removed manually from 
 the sealskins. Machines are now used for this phase of the operation, 
 
 26 
 
mink food; however the Aleut inhabitants of the Islands eat a considerable 
 amount as a desired part of their diet. 
 
 Managing the Fur Seal Herd 
 
 From the time the Federal government assumed responsibility for management 
 of the fur seal herd in 1910, it has adhered to a policy of taking only those 
 animals considered surplus to breeding requirements. The harvest was 
 restricted essentially to young males, from 1911 through 1955, although a 
 few females were mistakenly killed each year and some were taken for 
 research from time to time. From 1904 through 1912 and again from 1923 
 to 1932, a minimum yearly breeding reserve of several thousand subadult 
 males was provided by marking them with a brand or shearing a patch of fur, 
 then permitting them to return to the sea. An adequate breeding stock was 
 further assured by limiting the killing season each year to a period from 
 the latter part of June to the end of July and by taking only those male 
 seals within prescribed body-length limits. 
 
 By 1956, a climbing mortality rate among the pups on land alerted scien- 
 tists to the possibility that the seal population was too high. Therefore, 
 a program was begun under the auspices of the North Pacific Fur Seal 
 Commission to reduce the number of pups born annually by removing pres- 
 cribed numbers of breeding females from the herd over a period of several 
 years. The number of breeding females was reduced because all available 
 evidence (increasing pup mortality on land, wide fluctuations in the 
 annual harvest of males, and failure of the trend in the harvest of males 
 to continue the spectacular increase which began in the 1920's) indicated 
 
 21 
 
that the population was above the level which would provide the maximum 
 sustainable productivity required by the treaty. A reduction of herd 
 size to reach the level of maximum sustainable producitvity is based on 
 the premise that if a population is allowed to expand to its natural peak, 
 there is an accompanying increase in the death rate attributable to such 
 factors as insufficient food, disease, and injuries associated with over- 
 crowding. 
 
 Managers of the fur seal resource of the Pribilof Islands have been con- 
 ducting research to determine the population level at which the birth rate 
 is the highest and the death rate from natural causes is lowest, which 
 in turn allows a maximum sustainable harvest. Scientists have estimated 
 that the maximum sustainable productivity for the Pribilof fur seals is 
 attained when 350,000 to 400,000 pups are born per year. The number of 
 pups born annually is now within this range; however, the death rate of 
 young animals at sea apparently has increased in recent years and extensive 
 experimentation is underway to determine the cause. 
 
 The harvesting of seals on St. George Island was terminated so that the 
 rookery and hauling ground complexes there might become a research control 
 area in a major scientific research program to compare a harvested population 
 (St. Paul) to an unharvested population (St. George). Research is underway 
 to determine the size of various herd elements, causes of death among pups, 
 and behavior of all the animals as related to reproduction. Another phase 
 of the program involves the collection of data at sea on abundance and 
 distribution of seals, as well as on feeding habits and availability of 
 
 28 
 
prey species. 
 
 Scientists of the National Marine Fisheries Service monitor several herd 
 elements each year to determine how the resource is responding to management 
 practices. An estimate of the number of pups born is obtained and the 
 number that survive to harvestable ages is determined. The number of adult 
 males on the rookeries and hauling grounds is counted as a check on the 
 adequacy of numbers of young males permitted to escape the harvest (Fig. 9). 
 Pups that die on the rookeries are counted to provide additional information 
 on early mortality, and dead pups collected from study areas are examined 
 for causes of death. 
 
 Developing and applying correct management practices for the seals is a 
 continuing process and improvements are made as new information becomes 
 available—all part of the long-term program to assure that the Pribilofs 
 will always be blessed with an abundance of northern fur seals. 
 
 The Human Factor 
 
 With the Pribilof spotlight focused so intently upon the seal, there 
 sometimes is a tendency to forget that humans are very much involved- 
 humans whose own existence is closely interwoven with the welfare of the 
 northern fur seal . 
 
 When the U.S. Government assumed responsibility for the Pribilof fur seal, 
 it also assumed responsibility for the inhabitants of the Pribilof Islands- 
 Aleuts who were taken there from the Aleutian Islands by the Russians nearly 
 two centuries ago to provide a labor force for harvesting seals. 
 
 29 
 
Figure 9. Scientist counting adult males. Tripods and catwalks provide 
 safe vantage points for the observer. The bamboo pole is carried as an 
 aid in counting and to ward off aggressive bulls. 
 
 30 
 
Federal Government responsibilities associated with fur seal management 
 provides the major source of income for the Aleuts who live in the two 
 Pribilof communities on St. Paul and St. George Islands. All workers 
 employed by the United States receive standard government wages in 
 accordance with the work performed and the time employed. The Aleut 
 Community of St. Paul, the City of St. Paul, the U.S. Postal Service, 
 National Weather Service, and U.S. Coast Guard also provide some employment. 
 The Tanadgusix Corporation and Tanaq Corporation, on St. Paul and St. 
 George respectively, also offer training and work in their expanding enter- 
 prises. 
 
 St. Paul (Fig. 10), the larger of the two inhabited islands, is home to 
 about 450 residents and St. George has a population of about 150 people. 
 Some of the present residents can trace their ancestry back for 180 years; 
 more than 95 percent of the inhabitants were born on the Pribilofs. 
 
 The island villages have facilities comparable to those of many towns 
 in Alaska, including frame houses, electrical service, water, police 
 department, volunteer fire department, and sewer systems. St. Paul has 
 year-round commercial airline service; St. George has twice monthly air- 
 charter service. Both communities boast of color TV stations. St. Paul 
 has several local businesses: a hotel with dining room, two cafes, a movie 
 house, grocery store, post office, tavern, barber shop, laundry and gasoline 
 station. Satellite telephone communications began service in May 1976, 
 and practically ewery family has at least a short-wave or long-wave radio. 
 Local and inter-island communications are conducted by radio. 
 
 31 
 
Figure 10. Part of the village of St. Paul on the south cape of St. Paul 
 Island is close to several seal rookeries, including Reef, one of the 
 larger. 
 
 32 
 
The school building in use on St. George Island was built in 1955; a new 
 school was completed on St. Paul in 1973. Education to the 10th year is 
 available on St. Paul Island. Elementary education only is available on 
 St. George. To complete their high-school education, or continue with 
 additional training, Pribilof youngsters must go to the mainland. 
 
 The Aleuts are U.S. citizens who vote in local, State, and national elections 
 
 The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 is stimulating many 
 changes for the Aleut people of St. Paul and St. George. The land and 
 houses will no longer be solely owned by the Federal Government as a 
 special reservation. For the first time, the homes will be privately owned 
 by the people residing in them and a large percentage of the land on St. 
 Paul and St. George Islands will be owned by the two Corporations represent- 
 ing the two villages. Buildings surplus to Government needs have been 
 released for selection by the Corporations. The Government has retained 
 that land necessary for administering the seal herds and carrying out other 
 obligations under the Fur Seal Act including the seal rookeries, air strips, 
 utility systems, and other facilities and land necessary. 
 
 Since both federal and private land will occur side by side, a substantial 
 mutual interest exists between the National Marine Fisheries Service and 
 the Aleut people in the cooperative use of this land in the joint interest 
 of the resident people and the fur seals and other wildlife. A Joint 
 Management Board has been formed and a Joint Management Agreement drawn up 
 for the sole purpose of providing guidelines for the joint use of various 
 facil ities. 
 
 33 
 
The Pribilofs are a remote treeless group of islands with a reasonably 
 mild climate for such a northern latitude. Agriculture is nonexistent. 
 During an extremely brief growing season in the summer, however, dozens 
 of varieties of wildflowers of rare color and beauty spread over the 
 landscape. Bird lovers and scientists equipped with cameras and 
 binoculars and other special equipment come from all over the world to see 
 tufted puffins, murres, kittiwakes, pelagic cormorants, and many other 
 species. A small herd of reindeer roams St. Paul Island and visitors 
 driving along the roadways may see blue Arctic foxes sitting outside dens 
 with their young. 
 
 It is the story of the northern fur seal, however, whose herds have been 
 returned to a healthy, stable condition, and the Aleuts, a people success- 
 fully undergoing a cultural and economic transition, upon which the true 
 drama of the Pribilofs is based. With a continued spirit of international 
 cooperation, dedicated research programs such as the St. George Island 
 reserve, sound management, and a serious concern about the lands and 
 waters where the fur seals return to breed, history can be assured that this 
 magnificent animal will continue its annual migration to the Pribilofs-to 
 the benefit of both the seals and the humans who share this island home. 
 
 34 
 
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 DECEMBER 1976