Number: 1981-18
WHEREAS, the United States, recognizing the importance of protecting stocks of North Pacific fur seals from being exploited to the point of extinction, is a party to the Interim Convention on the Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals along with Canada, Japan, and the Soviet Union; and
WHEREAS, this Convention prohibits the pelagic taking of fur seals, such protection largely being responsible for the increase in fur seal numbers from dangerously low levels in the 19th and early 20th Centuries; and
WHEREAS, this Convention facilitates the sound, scientific management of fur seals, including a closely regulated harvest of excess immature males; and
WHEREAS, certain factions, falsely claiming fur seals to be declining or endangered, or harvest techniques to be inhumane, have caused the introduction of federal legislation to terminate the Convention; and
WHEREAS, research currently underway to assess the impact of a cessation of harvest on fur seal populations is incomplete and inconclusive;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in annual meeting assembled March 26-29, 1981, in Norfolk, Virginia, endorses U.S. participation in the Interim Convention on the Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals and the program of scientific wildlife management of fur seals conducted in furtherance of the Convention; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation encourages the efficient and non-wasteful utilization of all by-products of the annual harvest of immature males.