We have now the honor to report to you the successful completion of the
work of the conference. The protocols of this conference, which are
handed you herewith, contain the record of the daily proceedings of the
meetings. The final findings of fact are embodied in the joint statement
of conclusions unanimously adopted by the conference, which we now also
place in your hands.
It is proper that we should explain the absence in this joint statement
of all reference to the regulations adopted in accordance with the award
of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration, or to any question involving
administrative action.
In this connection, in accordance with their understanding of the purpose
of the conference, the delegates of the United States presented for
discussion the following proposition:
In deference to the views of the delegates of Great Britain and Canada,
this proposition and all similar ones suggested were withdrawn from
discussion, it being stated by the delegates of Great Britain and Canada
that their interpretation of the joint instructions did not permit them
to take up this or any other question bearing directly or indirectly on
regulations or administrative matters.
Trusting that you may find the work of the conference a satisfactory
contribution to knowledge of the condition of the fur-seal herd, we
are,
Joint statement of conclusions respecting the
fur-seal herd frequenting the Pribilof Islands in Bering
Sea.
The undersigned, duly empowered delegates, engaged during recent
years in the investigation of the condition and habits of the
fur-seal herd frequenting the Pribilof Islands in Bering Sea, viz:
On behalf of the United States, Charles Sumner Hamlin and David
Starr Jordan; on behalf of Great Britain, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson;
on behalf of Canada, James Melville Macoun, have met in conference
under instructions from our respective Governments. Under these
instructions we were directed:
To arrive, if possible, at correct conclusions respecting the
numbers, conditions, and habits of the seals frequenting the
Pribilof Islands at the present time as compared with the
several seasons previous and subsequent to the Paris
award.
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As a result of such conference, now completed, we, the above-named
Charles Sumner Hamlin, David Starr Jordan, D’Arcy Wentworth
Thompson, and James Melville Macoun, find ourselves in accord on the
propositions contained in the following joint statement of
conclusions respecting the fur-seal herd frequenting the Pribilof
Islands, and make this our report.
joint statement.
1. There is adequate evidence that since the year 1884, and down to
the date of the inspection of the rookeries in 1897, the fur seal
herd of the Pribilof Islands, as measured on either of the hauling
grounds or breeding grounds, has declined in numbers at a rate
varying from year to year.
2. In the absence for the earlier years of actual counts of the
rookeries such as have been made in recent years, the best
approximate measure of decline now available is found in these
facts:
- (a)
- About 100,000 male seals of recognized killable age were
obtained from the hauling grounds each year from 1871 to
1889. The table of statistics given in Appendix I shows on
the whole a progressive increase in the number of hauling
grounds driven and in the number of drives made, as well as
a retardation of the date at which the quota was attained
during a number of years previous to 1889.
- (b)
- In the year 1896, 28,9641 killable seals were taken after continuing
the driving till July 27, and in 1897, 19,189, after
continuing the driving till August 11. We have no reason to
believe that during the period 1896 and 1897 a very much
larger number of males of recognized killable age could have
been taken on the hauling grounds.
The reduction between the years 1896 and 1897 in the number of
killable seals taken, while an indication of decrease in the
breeding herd, can not be taken as an actual measure of such
decrease. A number of other factors must be taken into
consideration, and the real measure of decrease must be sought in
more pertinent statistics drawn from the breeding rookeries
themselves.
3. From these data it is plain that the former yield of the hauling
grounds of the Pribilof Islands was from three to five times as
great as in the years 1896 and 1897, and the same diminution to
one-third or one fifth of the former product may be assumed when we
include also the results of hunting at sea.
4. The death rate among the young fur seals, especially among the
pups, is very great. While the loss among the pups prior to their
departure from the islands has been found in the last two years to
approach 20 per cent of the whole number born, and though the rate
of subsequent mortality is unknown, we may gather from the number
which return each year that from one-half to two thirds have
perished before the age of 3 years—that is to say, the killable age
for the males and the breeding age for the females.
5. The chief natural2 causes of death among the pups, so far as known
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at present, are as
follows, the importance of each being variable and more or less
uncertain:
- (a)
- Ravages of the parasitic worm, Uncinaria, most destructive on sandy breeding
areas and during the period from July 15 to August
20.
- (b)
- Trampling by fighting bulls or by moving bulls and cows, a
source of loss greatest among very young pups.1
- (c)
- Starvation of pups strayed or separated from their mothers
when very young or whose mothers have died from natural
causes.
- (d)
- The ravages of the great killer (Orca), known to be fatal to many of the young and
perhaps also to older seals.
At a later period drowning in the storms of winter is believed, but
not certainly known, to be a cause of death among the older
pups.
6. Counts of certain rookeries, with partial counts and estimates of
others, show that the number of breeding females bearing pups on St.
Paul and St. George was, in 1896 and 1897, between 160,000 and
130,000, more nearly approaching the higher figure in 1896 and the
lower in 1897.2
7. On certain rookeries where pups were counted in both seasons,
16,241 being found in 1896 and 14,318 in 1897, or, applying a count
adopted by Professor Thompson, 14,743 in the latter year, there is
evident a decrease of 9 or 12 per cent within the twelvemonth in
question. The count of pups is the most trustworthy measure of
numerical variation in the herd. The counts of harems, and
especially of cows present, are much inferior in value. The latter
counts, however, point in the same direction. The harems on all the
rookeries were counted in both seasons. In 1896 there were 4,932, in
1897 there were 4,418, a decrease of 10.41 per cent. The cows
actually present on certain rookeries at the height of the season
were counted in both seasons. Where 10,198 were found in 1896, 7,307
were found in 1897, a decrease of 28.34 per cent.3
8. It is not easy to apply the various counts in the form of a
general average to all the rookeries of the islands. We recognize
that a notable decrease has been suffered by the herd during the
twelvemonth 1896 to 1897, without attempting, save by setting the
above numbers on record, to ascribe to the decrease more precise
figures.
9. The methods of driving and killing practiced on the islands, as
they have come under our observation during the past two years, call
for no criticism or objection. An adequate supply of bulls is
present on the rookeries; the number of older bachelors rejected in
the drives during the period in question is such as to safeguard in
the immediate future a similarly adequate supply; the breeding
bulls, females, and pups on the breeding rookeries are not
disturbed; there is no evidence
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or sign of impairment by driving of the
virility of males; the operations of driving and killing are
conducted skillfully and without inhumanity.
10. The pelagic industry is conducted in an orderly manner and in a
spirit of acquiescence in the limitations imposed by the law.
11. Pelagic sealing involves the killing of males and females alike,
without discrimination and in proportion as the two sexes coexist in
the sea. The reduction of males effected on the islands causes an
enhanced proportion of females to be found in the pelagic catch;
hence this proposition, if it vary from no other cause, varies at
least with the catch upon the islands. In 1895 Mr. A. B. Alexander,
on behalf of the Government of the United States, found 62.3 per
cent of females in the catch of the Dora
Siewerd, in Bering Sea, and in 1896 Mr. Andrew Halkett, on
behalf of the Canadian Government, found 84.2 in the catch of the
same schooner in the same sea. There are no doubt instances,
especially in the season of migration and on the course of the
migrating herds, of catches containing a very different proportion
of the two sexes.
12. The large proportion of females in the pelagic catch includes not
only adult females that are both nursing and pregnant, but also
young-seals that are not pregnant, and others that have not yet
brought forth young, with such also as have recently lost their
young through the various causes of natural mortality.1
13. The polygamous habit of the animal, coupled with an equal birth
rate of the two sexes, permits a large number of males to be removed
with impunity from the herd, while, as with other animals, any
similar abstraction of females checks or lessens the herd’s
increase; or, when carried further, brings about an actual
diminution of the here. It is equally plain that a certain number of
females may be killed without involving the actual diminution of the
herd, if the number killed do not exceed the annual increment of the
breeding herd, taking into consideration the annual losses by death
through old age and through incidents at sea.
14. While, whether from a consideration of the birth rate or from an
inspection of the visible effects, it is manifest that the take of
females in recent years has been so far in excess of the natural
increment as to lead to a reduction of the herd in the degree
related above, yet the ratio of the pelagic catch of one year to
that of the following has fallen off more rapidly than the ratio of
the breeding herd of one year to the breeding herd of the next.2
15. In this greater reduction of the pelagic catch compared with the
gradual decrease of the herd there is a tendency toward equilibrium,
or a stage at which the numbers of the breeding herd would neither
increase nor decrease. In considering the probable size of the herd
in
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the immediate future,
there remains to be estimated the additional factor of decline
resulting from reductions in the number of surviving pups caused by
the larger pelagic catch of 1894 and 1895.
16. The diminution of the herd is yet far from a stage which involves
or threatens the actual extermination of the species, so long as it
is protected in its haunts on land. It is not possible, during the
continuance of the conservative methods at present in force upon the
islands, with the further safeguard of the protected zone at sea,
that any pelagic killing should accomplish this final end. There is
evidence, however, that in its present condition the herd yields an
inconsiderable return either to the lessees of the islands or to the
owners of the pelagic fleet.
- Charles Sumner
Hamlin.
- David Starr Jordan.
- D’Arcy Wentworth
Thompson.
- James Melville
Macoun.
