Northwest History. Alaska. Forest Fires.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1935
• Subjects: sealskins; Pribiloff Islands; Bremerton; naval cargo vessel Sirius; Bering sea; cargo ship Vega; the United States; Russia; Japan; Great Britain; Indians; Dutch Harbor; St. Paul and St. George islands; Pelagic hunters; South America; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Alaska; Bering Sea; George Islands; Pacific; Sirius
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/91770

Ship Goes North For Sealskins: Will Bring Back 50,000 To 65,000 From Pribiloff Islands. SHIP GOES NORTH FOR SEALSKINS Will Bring Back 50,000 to 65,000 From Pribiloff Islands. BREMERTON, Wash., July 21. (OP) —Her holds full ol stores and supplies for the settlements along the bleak shores of the Pribiloff islands, the naval cargo vessel Sirlus was en route today from here to the Bering sea sealing grounds to bring back the season's catch. She will bring between 50,000 and 65,000 skins late this summer. The Sirius, or the cargo ship Vega, makes the trip each summer, transporting the sealskin "take" as a government mission, for the seals are protected and only certain ones are slain by agreement among the United States, Russia, Japan and Great Britain. The restrictions are to prevent extinction of the once heavily slaughtered herds. Each spring the seal migration starts northward, coast guard patrol boats escorting the swimming seals to ward off poachers. Indians along the coast are allowed to hunt seals with primitive boats and weapons. The United States bureau of fisheries then directs the annual "take," with expert native hunters from Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The hunting is Y.ohfined to St. Paul and St. George Wands in the Pribiloffs and will be completed by the time the Sirius arrives. Pelagic hunters tell an oddity of the seals' life. They say the old bulls remain in the far north waters, but the females and young swim south, disappear into the vastnesses of the Pacific and remain far at sea, as far south as South America, until another spring brings a new mating season and the herds swim back north.