MIGRATION OF FUR SEALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 June 1928, Page 9

MIGRATION OF FUR SEALS

SEA SERPENT EXPLAINED. VANCOUVER, April 1. Guarded by vessels oTthe Canadian Fishery Patrol, migration of fur seals is now under way. along the coast of British Columbia. Down through the ages, the annual trek has been made by the seals. Day by day they are now passing in their thousands on their journey from the sub-tropical waters of the California coast, to the Arctic regions of Behring Sea and its environs. Coming in from the Pacific, north of the Line, they reach California about February, and their teeming herds then turn northward to the breeding rockeries of the Pribyloff Islands. In the fall they follow the current south, past Japan, scattering broadcast across the warm bosom of the Pacific. The United States Patrol guards them till they reach a. line opposite the 49th Parallel, and there the Canadian authorities resume the vigil. Entering Alaska waters, Uncle Sam again takes charge of this personally conducted tour of moving multitudes.

Under the international agreement, only Indians are permitted to hunt, the seal as they migrate. The Red men are required to confine their hunting equipment to arrow and lance and dug-out canoe. Motor boats and rowing boats are banned. When the herd passes up the west coast, of Vancouver Island the Indian neglects the salmon for the lucrative and more hazardous seal. This year the weather has been good, enabling the primitive native craft to press well out to sea, to secure their toll of fur-bear-ing mammals. An amusing incident occurred during the first days of the migration. A tug met a strange object off the west coast. II is the open season for sea serpents, and the crew became excited over a long slimy grey creature with a lumpy head as it lay, apparently asleep, rising ami falling on a quiet, swell. The master manoeuvred his craft nearer and nearer till the crew could see the massive coils of the monster. Suddenly the head turned and stared at the tug, then slid into the water, leaving the body headless. The body wriggled and broke up into fragments. The “serpent” was a line of about fifty sleeping seals, and the head was a. seal pup that was asleep on its mother’s back at the head of the line.