The Pribilof Islands
Well, most of you have never heard of this place, so I will give you a brief overview of it’s position in History. The fur seal, which is more of a sea lion than seal, does 80% of it’s breeding on the shores of the Pribilof Islands. The Russians sailors discovered this gold mine of fur in the 1700’s and basically killed indiscriminately, harvesting every seal that they could find….which was 80% of all the fur seals in the world. The seals all come ashore for the breeding season, thousands of them, and the Russian took everything they could get. In fact, they were so lazy about it, they took a village of Aleut Natives and relocated them to live year round on the islands, and harvest the seals for them, and they would just show up once a year to collect the goods. Lazy!!
America purchased Alaska, and with it the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands, and when the surveyors arrived, they immediately called for a limit on harvesting these magnificent creatures. They would harvest only a very specific amount of seals, and only the young males that were not big enough to breed, then sell the pelt to London. You see, fur seal coats were all the rage at the time, and only the folks at the London tannery knew how to process this tough leathery skin. Finally, people began to see that this was also a huge mistake and a moratorium was placed on harvesting the seals, Allowing for what I saw today. An entire island ringed with seals. They were everywhere. As you approach the shore you can see the playing in the water, and from a distance what looks like rocks, are actually hundreds of seals camped out on the rocks! The pups are so tiny, and they can’t even swim yet, and they hang out with their moms and with each other rolling around and playing together of the rocky shore.
We took a bus out to a Rookery, a breeding beach for the seals. I stood there in awe, we were standing no less than 10 feet from the closest one. And he yelled at me as I got off of the bus. Their yells sound something like a large loud belch, very throaty and load. Imagine what comes up when you let loose after drinking a whole rootbeer. He was yelling because he had gotten away from the main group of seals in order to catch a nap and we obviously woke his cranky butt up!
I had to laugh because he was so lazy that all he did was lift his head and yell, he couldn’t even be bothered by sitting up all of the way. So about another 20 feet down the beach were the rest of the crowd. The huge bulls who come out of the sea in May, and don’t return to the water until the end of July or August. They are about 700 pounds of big bully. They bully each other, they bully the girls, they are just to bully to be imagined. They don’t eat or drink this entire time, and live off of their blubber stores, so basically they a big cranky buggers. Then the female are these beautiful light chocolate creatures, dainty next to the men. Playful with their pups, and fun to see swimming around in the kelp eating fish. Finally, the pups, are like little puppys squirming about on the rock, bleating like sheep, rolling all over each other paying no mind to anything around them. They were so cute I wanted to squish em….or take em home with me.
Well, most of you have never heard of this place, so I will give you a brief overview of it’s position in History. The fur seal, which is more of a sea lion than seal, does 80% of it’s breeding on the shores of the Pribilof Islands. The Russians sailors discovered this gold mine of fur in the 1700’s and basically killed indiscriminately, harvesting every seal that they could find….which was 80% of all the fur seals in the world. The seals all come ashore for the breeding season, thousands of them, and the Russian took everything they could get. In fact, they were so lazy about it, they took a village of Aleut Natives and relocated them to live year round on the islands, and harvest the seals for them, and they would just show up once a year to collect the goods. Lazy!!
America purchased Alaska, and with it the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands, and when the surveyors arrived, they immediately called for a limit on harvesting these magnificent creatures. They would harvest only a very specific amount of seals, and only the young males that were not big enough to breed, then sell the pelt to London. You see, fur seal coats were all the rage at the time, and only the folks at the London tannery knew how to process this tough leathery skin. Finally, people began to see that this was also a huge mistake and a moratorium was placed on harvesting the seals, Allowing for what I saw today. An entire island ringed with seals. They were everywhere. As you approach the shore you can see the playing in the water, and from a distance what looks like rocks, are actually hundreds of seals camped out on the rocks! The pups are so tiny, and they can’t even swim yet, and they hang out with their moms and with each other rolling around and playing together of the rocky shore.
We took a bus out to a Rookery, a breeding beach for the seals. I stood there in awe, we were standing no less than 10 feet from the closest one. And he yelled at me as I got off of the bus. Their yells sound something like a large loud belch, very throaty and load. Imagine what comes up when you let loose after drinking a whole rootbeer. He was yelling because he had gotten away from the main group of seals in order to catch a nap and we obviously woke his cranky butt up!
I had to laugh because he was so lazy that all he did was lift his head and yell, he couldn’t even be bothered by sitting up all of the way. So about another 20 feet down the beach were the rest of the crowd. The huge bulls who come out of the sea in May, and don’t return to the water until the end of July or August. They are about 700 pounds of big bully. They bully each other, they bully the girls, they are just to bully to be imagined. They don’t eat or drink this entire time, and live off of their blubber stores, so basically they a big cranky buggers. Then the female are these beautiful light chocolate creatures, dainty next to the men. Playful with their pups, and fun to see swimming around in the kelp eating fish. Finally, the pups, are like little puppys squirming about on the rock, bleating like sheep, rolling all over each other paying no mind to anything around them. They were so cute I wanted to squish em….or take em home with me.
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