CHAPTER 3 - SEALS AND POLAR BEARS
from PART II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
Summary
“The old grey music doctors of the ocean, their holy happy eyes shining devotion, applaud and blow in foam and soft commotion.”
(L.A.G. Strong, The Seals)Seals
Sealing is one of the oldest forms of commercial exploitation of wildlife. Starting in the late eighteenth century, commercial sealing expanded steadily during the course of the nineteenth century, reaching a peak about 1890. By the early 1900s, so many seal populations had been depleted – some were on the verge of extinction – that the need for controls on their exploitation had become imperative. Since many seals either occurred outside areas of national jurisdiction or migrated from one State's jurisdiction to another, international cooperation was vital if controls were to be successful. A number of sealing treaties have been concluded since the turn of the century, and this chapter examines four which are now in force. They are the Interim Convention on the Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals, the Agreement on Measures to Regulate Sealing and to Protect Seal Stocks in the Northeastern Part of the Atlantic Ocean and the Agreement on Sealing and the Conservation of Seal Stocks in the Northwest Atlantic.
These four treaties are concerned exclusively with seals, but it should be emphasised that they are not the only treaties governing the conservation and exploitation of seals. There are several more which are considered elsewhere in this book because they cover other species as well as seals.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- International Wildlife LawAn Analysis of International Treaties concerned with the Conservation of Wildlife, pp. 39 - 61Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985