Seal and Sea Otter in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea
2 was adopted. Since a
precondition for its entering into force was Great Britain’s ratification, which never
chose to do so, it remained a document that was merely voluntary. Irrespectively, the
three other countries chose to adhere to the convention for the 1898 sealing season.
The objective of the convention—the cessation of all sealing and sea otter hunting
operations in the North Pacific Ocean, including the Bering, Okhotsk and
Kamchatka Seas for 1 year—was implemented by Russia, the US and Japan.
Since Great Britain (and Canada) refused to follow suit, towards the end of the
nineteenth century, the Bering Sea was still the ground for extensive pelagic seal
hunts.
6.3
The First Half of the Twentieth Century
The early twentieth century was marked by large-scale seal hunts in the North
Atlantic and in the North Pacific. Additionally, regions such as the White Sea, the
North and Baltic Seas as well as in Lake Ladoga, the freshwater lake that the
then-Russian/Finnish border cut in half, were important hunting grounds. While in
the North Atlantic, North Pacific and White Sea the hunts were conducted primarily
for commercial purposes, the Baltic Sea and Lake Ladoga hunts were rather a means
of controlling seal populations. The overall approach to seals and sealing was
therefore significantly different: while in the Bering Sea seal hunts were multilaterally regulated in order to prevent an overexploitation of seals, in European waters
each country regulated the hunt itself, even putting in place bounties for seals. In
other words, in the Baltic or North Seas, no international agreement existed that led
to the regulation of sealing or the protection of seals. Lake Ladoga is a somewhat
different story, however, albeit for reasons that are related to Russian-Finnish
relations and the fact that Lake Ladoga was a border lake. The same can be said
about the Russian-Finnish maritime border area in the Arctic Ocean. Before the
Second World War, Finland’s territory extended to the northernmost reaches of the
Scandinavian Peninsula—the Petsamo Region—which is now part of Russia. Given
the ongoing seal hunts in that region as well, Russia and Finland entered into an
agreement, yet, once again, not based on sealing per se, but on the fact that this was a
border region. We will get to this issue below.
6.3.1 The 1911 Fur Seal Convention
Let us first turn back to the Bering Sea, which was subject to an emerging regime on
the seal hunt between several sealing nations. After the failure of the International
Fur Seal Conference and the not entering into force of the Convention for the
2 Convention for the Preservation of the Fur Seal and Sea Otter in the North Pacific Ocean and
Bering Sea, 6 Nov 1897.
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6 The International Legal Framework for Seals
2 was adopted. Since a
precondition for its entering into force was Great Britain’s ratification, which never
chose to do so, it remained a document that was merely voluntary. Irrespectively, the
three other countries chose to adhere to the convention for the 1898 sealing season.
The objective of the convention—the cessation of all sealing and sea otter hunting
operations in the North Pacific Ocean, including the Bering, Okhotsk and
Kamchatka Seas for 1 year—was implemented by Russia, the US and Japan.
Since Great Britain (and Canada) refused to follow suit, towards the end of the
nineteenth century, the Bering Sea was still the ground for extensive pelagic seal
hunts.
6.3
The First Half of the Twentieth Century
The early twentieth century was marked by large-scale seal hunts in the North
Atlantic and in the North Pacific. Additionally, regions such as the White Sea, the
North and Baltic Seas as well as in Lake Ladoga, the freshwater lake that the
then-Russian/Finnish border cut in half, were important hunting grounds. While in
the North Atlantic, North Pacific and White Sea the hunts were conducted primarily
for commercial purposes, the Baltic Sea and Lake Ladoga hunts were rather a means
of controlling seal populations. The overall approach to seals and sealing was
therefore significantly different: while in the Bering Sea seal hunts were multilaterally regulated in order to prevent an overexploitation of seals, in European waters
each country regulated the hunt itself, even putting in place bounties for seals. In
other words, in the Baltic or North Seas, no international agreement existed that led
to the regulation of sealing or the protection of seals. Lake Ladoga is a somewhat
different story, however, albeit for reasons that are related to Russian-Finnish
relations and the fact that Lake Ladoga was a border lake. The same can be said
about the Russian-Finnish maritime border area in the Arctic Ocean. Before the
Second World War, Finland’s territory extended to the northernmost reaches of the
Scandinavian Peninsula—the Petsamo Region—which is now part of Russia. Given
the ongoing seal hunts in that region as well, Russia and Finland entered into an
agreement, yet, once again, not based on sealing per se, but on the fact that this was a
border region. We will get to this issue below.
6.3.1 The 1911 Fur Seal Convention
Let us first turn back to the Bering Sea, which was subject to an emerging regime on
the seal hunt between several sealing nations. After the failure of the International
Fur Seal Conference and the not entering into force of the Convention for the
2 Convention for the Preservation of the Fur Seal and Sea Otter in the North Pacific Ocean and
Bering Sea, 6 Nov 1897.
130
6 The International Legal Framework for Seals