Reports of vast colonies of fur seal on South Georgia by Captain Cook (1775) 'Seals and seal-bears were pretty numerous, for the shores swarmed with young cubs' and of huge numbers on Saunders Island by a French sealer in 1778 aroused interest in sealing in the Falklands, particularly by New England and British and Scandinavian countries. In 1784 an American sealing vessel, The States, fitted out especially for the purpose, took some 13,000 fur seal skins and this was followed by British sealers moving in to exploit them. Fur seals were clubbed, stabbed, (avoiding damage to the pelt), and skinned, the skins then salted and folded for European and American markets. During 1792 forty sealing vessels were reportedly operating there, some of them 'elephanting' or hunting elephant seals for their oil. New Island, West Point Island and other West Falkland harbours became home bases to sealers, many from Nantucket. Home was a rough stone hut on the beach with a sealskin or sailcloth roof. They placed pigs goats and even rabbits (Saunders Island, New Island )on some islands as a source of fresh meat. A man could flay up to 50 seals in a single day.
There were many disputes with the American sealers who largely ignored any authority. The Port Louis settlers claiming that the fur seal rookery next to them on Volunteer Rocks was theirs. By 1800 the vast fur rookeries on South Georgia were also being ruthlessly harvested, with 122,000 being taken. Between 1811 and 1820 'the lawless years' when the Falklands were abandoned by all nations, the only people on the islands were the itinerant sealers, free to do as they pleased.
Sealers were indiscriminate taking pups and females as well as males. Pups could make the difference between a profitable and unprofitable cargo. By 1836 sealing was seriously declining on the Falklands. During the years 1829 - 1834 that the the East Falklands and its fishing and sealing resources were administered by Vernet for the United Provinces of de la Plata, Vernet well recognized the decimation of his valuable stock and began a campaign, if somewhat self-interested, imposing a 'duty' on 'foreign' catches and of seizing foreign, particularly American, (but not British) vessels that flaunted his authority. The British repossessed the islands in 1834 and in 1840 attempts to enforce regulations to conserve seal stocks were made with a licence necessary to hunt fur seal off Volunteer Point and the condition that they were only to be hunted every other year. (A further measure to save remaining fur seal stocks was brought in in 1881 with a closed hunting season and naval patrols of the rookeries). The foreign vessels, particularly American, carried on hunting elsewhere regardless, causing much aggravation to the new colony. The American Civil War breaking out in 1861 finished their sealing enterprises in the South Atlantic until 1871 when they returned to re-exploit the replenished and rested fur seal around the South Shetlands. No fur seal were left there by 1929. Left alone furs managed to recover to a degree and poachers from the coast would return to the Falklands on forays around the Jasons and other islands. Some schooners did profitable 'pelagic' sealing where seals were shot at sea and the skins shipped out through Stanley and as they were killed outside the Colony could not be taxed. This took a great many seals, probably at the expense of local sealers. In 1904 the FI Government rectified this by levying a charge of 10/- per skin on trans-shipped skins, this deterred many sealers from visiting the islands, particularly those from Nova Scotia and businesses in Stanley complained that they lost trade. The 10/- levy was revoked to 1/- in 1906 and some sealers and poachers returned but sealing was in decline and the schooners did not operate after 1908. There was sporadic poaching around the Jason islands by Patagonian sealers but eventually, in 1921 the Falklands passed an Ordinance to protect the fur seal altogether with the armed drifter 'Afterglow' as a patrol vessel and a guard on the Jasons.
The Falkland Islands Marine Mammals Ordinance 1992 protects all marine mammals in all waters from the coast to the edge of the economic exclusion zone and Fur Seals can be seen around the coast again. |
