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.