Thanks for
saving me!
Fur Seal Act of 1966
The Fur Seal Act of 1966 prohibits the taking, including
transportation, importing and possession, of fur seals and sea
otters. It also prevents humans from entering fur seal rookeries.
This act excludes Indians, Aleuts and Eskimos who live on the
coasts of the North Pacific Ocean and use seals for subsistence
purposes.
How it all began...
In the early 1800s, due to widespread seal slaughter, the
United States leased the rights to fur seal harvesting on the islands
to the Alaska Commercial Company and declared the rights of the
Bering Sea off-limits to sealers of any nation.
Instead of helping the seal population, these regulations led to
offshore, open water sealing, decimating the herd.
Henry Wood Elliott to the Rescue...
Henry Wood Elliott was an American water colorist and a
naturalist whose job was to determine the most profitable
manner of managing the great seal herds of the Pribilof
Islands for a sustainable harvest.
It began in 1872, when Elliott calculated that 100,000
bachelor males could be harvested per year (out of
approximately 4 million seals). While this seemed to be
enough, many greedy seal hunters began to slaughter the
females. In doing so, the hunters initially killed three
seals, the female, a nursing pup on shore who relied on
the mother for food, and a seal embryo.
Elliott returned to the Pribilof Islands in 1890 and was
outraged at the incompetence of both government
officials and commercial interests. As a result, he became
an advocate of fur seals and saved the fur seal population
from extinction.
The prohibition of sealing due to Elliott’s persistence and
the cooperation of Russia, Japan, Great Britain and the U.S. led to
the Pacific Fur Seal Treaty of 1911. This treaty was the first
international treaty for wildlife conservation and a forerunner of the
Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972-which gave NOAA (National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) control of marine
mammals.
http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/Quarterly/amj2007/images/feature_furseals.jpg
http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/feb2007/canada_seals_mailout_pictur
e.jpg
http://www.scoodog.com/2008/03/this-year-both-seals-and-humans-die.html
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/features/elliott.htm
http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/events/fursealtreaty/welcome.html