Fur Seal Act of 1966

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Fur Seal Act of 1966
Thanks for saving me!
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Guidelines
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.
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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.
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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.
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The prohibition of sealing due to Elliotts
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.
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Bibliography
http//www.afsc.noaa.gov/Quarterly/amj2007/images/
feature_furseals.jpg http//www.indymedia.ie/atta
chments/feb2007/canada_seals_mailout_picture.jpg
http//www.scoodog.com/2008/03/this-year-both-seal
s-and-humans-die.html http//www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/
features/elliott.htm http//celebrating200years.n
oaa.gov/events/fursealtreaty/welcome.html