Exploitation of fur seals and sea lions from Australian, New Zealand and adjacent subantarctic islands during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Abstract

Details of skin of fur seal Arctocephalus spp. and sea lion Neophoca cinerea and Phocarctos hookeri, originating from southern Australia, New Zealand and the adjacent subantarctic islands in the lath, 19th and 20th centuries have been collated from several secondary historicsl sources. These sources quoted quantities of skins in terms of actual tallied numbers, as untallied cargoes or as casks, sacks or bundles. Untallied were converted into numbers by averaging tallied cargoes; and casks, sacks and bundles were arbitrarily deemed to contain 40, 20 and 5 skins respectively.Annual and total yields of skins are presented for ten separate areas in the region: Bass Strait, King Island, Kangaroo Island. Western Australia, New Zealand, Bounty Islands, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Islands. Campbell Island and Macquarie island. At least 1 367 000 fur seal skins were harvested between 1792 and 1948149 in the whole of the Australasian region. More than 1309 000 skins - 96% of the total - were taken...