PART XXIV.-SEAL FISHERIES. 295. Act of December 29, 1897. 296. Act of February 21, 1893. Dec. 29, 1897. Sec. 2. Sec. 3. Sec. Sec. 5. Sec. 6. 297. Act of April 6, 1894. 295. Act of December 29, 1897. No citizen of the United States, nor person owing duty of obedience to the laws or the treaties of the United States, nor any person belonging to or on board of a ves sel of the United States, shall kill, capture, or hunt, at any time or in any manner whatever, any fur seal in the waters of the Pacific Ocean north of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude and including Bering Sea and the sea of Okhotsk. No citizen of the United States, nor person above de scribed in section one, shall equip, use, or employ, or furnish aid in equipping, using, or employing, or furnish supplies to any vessel used or employed, or to be used or employed in carrying on or taking part in said killing, capturing, or hunting of fur seals in said waters, nor shall any vessel of the United States be so used or employed. Every person guilty of a violation of the provisions of this Act, or of any regulations made thereunder, shall, for each offense, be fined not less than two hundred dollars or more than two thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both; and every vessel, its tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, at any time used or employed in violation of this Act, or of the regulations made there. under, shall be forfeited to the United States. If any vessel of the United States shall be found within the waters to which this Act applies, having on board furseal skins or bodies of seals, or apparatus or implements suitable for killing or taking seals, it shall be presumed that such vessel was used or employed in the killing of said seals, or that said apparatus or implements were used in violation of this Act until the contrary is proved to the satisfaction of the court. Any violation of this Act or of the regulations thereunder may be prosecuted either in the district court of Alaska or in any district court of the United States in California, Oregon, or Washington. This Act shall not interfere with the privileges accorded to Indians dwelling on the coast of the United States under section six of the Act of April sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, but the limitations prescribed in said Act shall remain in full force. This Act shall not affect in any way the killing or taking Sec. 7. of fur seals upon the Pribilof Islands, or the laws of the United States relating thereto. Any officer of the Naval or Revenue-Cutter Service of Sec. 8. the United States, and any other officers duly designated by the President, may search any vessel of the United States in port or on the high seas suspected of having violated or of having an intention to violate the provisions of this Act, and may seize such vessel and the offending officers and crew and bring them into the most accessible port of the States and Territory mentioned in section five of this Act for trial. The importation into the United States by any person whatsoever of fur-seal skins taken in the waters mentioned in this Act, whether raw, dressed, dyed, or manufactured, is hereby prohibited, and all such articles imported after this Act shall take effect shall not be permitted to be exported, but shall be seized and destroyed by the proper officers of the United States. Sec. 9. The President shall have power to make all necessary Sec. 10. regulations to carry this Act into effect. 296. Act of February 21, 1893. Whenever the Government of the United States shall Feb. 21, 1893. conclude an effective international arrangement for the protection of fur seals in the North Pacific Ocean, by agreement with any power, or as a result of the decision of the tribunal of arbitration under the convention concluded between the United States and Great Britain February twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and so long as such arrangement shall continue, the provisions of section nineteen hundred and fifty-six of the Revised Statutes, and all other provisions of the statutes of the United States, so far as the same may be applicable, relative to the protection of fur seals and other fur-bearing animals within the limits of Alaska or in the waters thereof, shall be extended to and over all that portion of the Pacific Ocean included in such international arrangement. Whenever an effective international arrangement is concluded as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the President to declare that fact by proclamation, and to designate the portion of the Pacific Ocean to which it is applicable, and that this act has become operative; and likewise when such arrangement ceases, to declare that fact and that this act has become inoperative, and his proclamation with respect thereto shall be conclusive. During the extension as aforesaid of said laws for the protection of fur seals and other fur-bearing animals all violations thereof in said designated portion of the Pacific Ocean shall be held to be the same as if committed within the limits of Alaska or in the waters thereof, but they may be Apr. 6, 1894. prosecuted either in the district court of Alaska or in any district court of the United States in California, Oregon, or Washington. 297. Act of April 6, 1894. . Whereas the following articles of the award of the Tribunal of Arbitration constituted under the treaty concluded at Washington the twenty-ninth of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, between the United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland were delivered to the agents of the respective governments on the fifteenth day of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-three: ARTICLE 1. The governments of the United States and Great Britain shall forbid their citizens and subjects respectively to kill, capture, or pursue at any time, and in any manner whatever, the animals commonly called fur seals, within a zone of sixty miles around the Pribilov Islands, inclusive of the territorial waters. The miles mentioned in the preceding paragraph are geographical miles, of sixty to a degree of latitude. ARTICLE 2. The two governments shall forbid their citizens and subjects respectively to kill, capture or pursue, in any manner whatever, during the season extending, each year, from the first of May to the thirty-first of July, both inclusive, the fur seals on the high sea, in the part of the Pacific Ocean, inclusive of the Bering Sea, which is situated to the north of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, and eastward of the one hundred and eightieth degree of longitude from Greenwich till it strikes the water boundary described in article one of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-seven between the United States and Russia, and following that line up to Berings Straits. ARTICLE 3. During the period of time and in the waters in which the fur-seal fishing is allowed, only sailing vessels shall be permitted to carry on or take part in fur-seal fishing operations. They will however be at liberty to avail themselves of the use of such canoes or undecked boats, propelled by paddles, oars, or sails, as are in common use as fishing boats. ARTICLE 4. Each sailing vessel authorized to fish for fur seals must be provided with a special license issued for that purpose by its Government, and shall be required to carry a distinguishing flag to be prescribed by its Government. ARTICLE 5. The masters of the vessels engaged in fur-seal fishing shall enter accurately in their official log book the date and place of each fur-seal fishing operation, and also the number and sex of the seals captured upon each day. These entries shall be communicated by each of the two governments to the other at the end of each fishing season. ARTICLE 6. The use of nets, firearms and explosives shall be forbidden in the fur-seal fishing. This restriction shall not apply to shotguns when such fishing takes place outside of Behring sea, during the season when it may be lawfully carried on. ARTICLE 7. The two governments shall take measures to control the fitness of the men authorized to engage in fur-seal fishing; these men shall have been proved fit to bandle with sufficient skill the weapons by means of which this fishing may be carried on. ARTICLE 8. The regulations contained in the preceding articles shall not apply to Indians dwelling on the coast of the territory of the United States or of Great Britain, and carrying on fur-seal fishing in canoes or undecked boats not transported by or used in connection with other vessels and propelled wholly by paddles, oars or sails and manned by not more than five persons each in the way hitherto practiced by the Indians, provided such Indians are not in the employment of other persons and provided that, when so hunting in canoes or undecked boats, they shall not hunt fur seals outside of territorial waters under contract for the delivery of the skins to any person. This exemption shall not be construed to affect the municipal law of either country, nor shall it extend to the waters of Behring Sea or the waters of the Aleutian Passes. Nothing herein contained is intended to interfere with the employment of Indians as hunters or otherwise in connection with fur sealing vessels as heretofore. ARTICLE 9. The concurrent regulations hereby determined with a view to the protection and preservation of the fur seals, shall remain in force until they have been, in whole or in part, abolished or modified by common agreement between the governments of the United States and of Great Britain. The said concurrent regulations shall be submitted every five years to a new examination, so as to enable both interested governments to consider whether, in the light of Sec. 2. Sec. 3. Sec. 4. past experience, there is occasion for any modification thereof. Now therefore, be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no citizen of the United States, or person owing the duty of obedience to the laws or the treaties of the United States, nor any person belonging to or on board of a vessel of the United States, shall kill, capture, or pursue, at any time, or in any manner whatever, outside of territorial waters, any fur seal in the waters surrounding the Pribilov Islands within a zone of sixty geographical miles (sixty to a degree of latitude) around said islands, inclusive of the territorial waters. No citizen of the United States, or person above described in section one of this act, nor any person belong. ing to or on board of a vessel of the United States, shall kill, capture, or pursue, in any manner whatever, during the season extending from the first day of May to the thirty-first day of July, both inclusive, in each year, any fur seal on the high seas outside of the zone mentioned in section one, and in that part of the Pacific Ocean, including Behring Sea, which is situated to the north of the thirtyfifth degree of north latitude and to the east of the one hundred and eightieth degree of longitude from Greenwich till it strikes the water boundary described in article one of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, between the United States and Russia, and following that line up to Behring Straits. No citizen of the United States or person above described, in the first section of this Act, shall, during the period and in the waters in which by section two of this Act the killing of fur seals is not prohibited, use or employ any vessel, nor shall any vessel of the United States be used or employed, in carrying on or taking part in fur-seal fishing operations, other than a sailing vessel propelled by sails exclusively, and such canoes or undecked boats, propelled by paddles, oars, or sails as may belong to, and be used in connection with, such sailing vessels; nor shall any sailing vessel carry on or take part in such operations without a special license obtained from the Government for that purpose, and without carrying a distinctive flag prescribed by the Government for the same purpose. Every master of a vessel licensed under this act to engage in fur-seal fishing operations shall accurately enter in his official log book the date and place of every such operation, and also the number and sex of the seals captured each day; and on coming into port, and before landing cargo, the master shall verify, on oath, such official log book as containing a full and true statement of the number and character of his fur-seal fishing operations, including the number and sex of seals captured; and for any false statement willfully made by a person so licensed by the United States in this behalf he shall be subject to the penalties of perjury; and any seal skins found in excess of the statement in the official log book shall be forfeited to the United States. |