Kill Every Seal? An Alaska Official's Radical Fix for the Bering Sea

Sheldon Jackson, United States general agent of education in Alaska, arrived in Seattle from the East on Thursday evening and gave an interview to a Post-Intelligencer reporter yesterday afternoon. He said he was strongly in favor of the government killing off every seal at the Pribilof Islands this season, bringing to an end an international trouble that had continued for years and cost the United States many millions.

'At present it costs about $1,000,000 a year to keep a fleet of vessels in northern waters, and what recompense do we get?' Jackson said. 'I told them while I was in Washington City that it would be the best move we could make to have every seal killed off this season.' If that were done, he argued, a lot of money would be turned into the treasury; if things went on as they had, Canadian poachers would take every seal and the government would have a hole in the treasury.

Jackson said the Americans were not the main problem—the Canadians were. If an American vessel was caught poaching, it was seized and its owner got no indemnity from the American government. But if the American fleet seized a British vessel and an international court awarded damages, the owners were paid. Consequently, Americans went north and employed British boats.

He had been in Alaska for many years and during the past six years had noticed a remarkable decrease in the herds on the Pribilof Islands. He did not expect his suggestion to be followed, because he felt people lacked the sense to do it. England, he said, would look after her interests and would 'bulldoze' whenever the opportunity offered. On the Alaska boundary question he warned that there would be trouble if things did not come out as they should. England had no right to the claim, in his view, but would fight for it unless the United States showed fight.

As to the reindeer station at Bering Strait, Jackson said it meant much to Alaska. The herd was about 500 and increasing. The station still purchased animals from Siberia and raised many. Last year it gave the Congregationalists, who had missions in Alaska, a herd of over 100, and this season it expected to give the Catholics and Lutherans a herd each. He would like to introduce a few on the Yukon, but did not think that would succeed for some time. Jackson had been in charge of the station since he established it in 1891. This year he would live at Sitka, with William Hamilton in charge at the station. He had been East since November, spending most of his time in Washington City.