2 - The Seal and His Jacket

Summary

Chapter 2 explores the development of the seal industry in the period c.1870–1914 and assesses its ecological impact. Long prized for its luxurious coat, the fur seal had already been wiped out in the southern Pacific Ocean through indiscriminate culling; by the 1880s, it was also under threat in the Bering Sea. Anxious to prevent its extinction, the US Government looked for ways to limit the slaughter, introducing quotas for the number of seals that could be killed each year and banning ‘pelagic sealing’ (the hunting of seals in the sea). The chapter considers the wider diplomatic clashes that resulted from the decline of the fur seal population and the complications surrounding animal protection legislation, particularly when the animal in question lived in the ocean and crossed territorial boundaries. It also charts the growing humanitarian qualms over sealing, typically expressed in graphic accounts of innocent seals being skinned alive.