Pinniped
Hunting

Humans have hunted seals since the Stone Age. Originally, seals were merely hit with clubs during haul-out. Eventually, more lethal weapons were used, like spears and harpoons. They were also trapped in nets. The use of firearms in seal hunting during the modern era drastically increased the number of killings. Pinnipeds are typically hunted for their meat and blubber. The skins of fur seals and phocids are made into coats, and the tusks of walruses have been used as ivory. There is a distinction made between the subsistence hunting of seals by indigenous peoples of the Arctic and commercial hunting: subsistence hunters depend on seal products for survival. National and international authorities have given special treatment to aboriginal hunters since their methods of killing are seen as more sustainable and smaller in scope. However indigenous people have recently used more modern technology and are profiting more from seal products in the marketplace. Some anthropologists argue that the term "subsistence" should also apply to these activities, as long as they are local in scale. More than 100,000 phocids (especially ringed seals) as well as around 10,000 walruses are harvested annually by native hunters.

Commercial sealing rivaled whaling as an important industry throughout history. Harvested species included harp seals, hooded seals, Caspian seals, elephant seals, walruses and all species of fur seal. After the 1960s, the harvesting of seals decreased substantially as an industry after the Canadian government implemented measures to protect female seals and restrict the hunting season. Several species that were commercially exploited have rebounded in numbers; for example, Antarctic fur seals may have reached their pre-harvesting numbers. The northern elephant seal nearly went extinct in the late 19th century, with only a small population remaining on Guadalupe Island. It has since recolonized much of its historic range, but has a population bottleneck. Conversely, the Mediterranean monk seal was extirpated from much of the Mediterranean and its current range is still limited.

Several species of pinniped continue to be exploited. The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals protects species within the Antarctic and surrounding waters, but allows restricted hunting of crabeater seals, leopard seals and Weddell seals. Weddell seal hunting is forbidden between September and February if the animal is older than a year, to ensure healthy population growth. The Government of Canada permits the hunting of harp seals. This has been met with controversy and debate. Proponents of seal hunts insist that the animals are killed humanely and the white-coated pups are not taken, while opponents argue that it is irresponsible to kill harp seals as they are already threatened by declining habitat.

The Caribbean monk seal has been killed and exploited by European settlers and their descendants since 1494, starting with Christopher Columbus himself. The seals were easy targets for organized sealers, fishermen, turtle hunters and buccaneers because they evolved with little pressure from terrestrial predators and were thus " genetically tame ". In the Bahamas, as many as 100 seals were slaughtered in one night. The species was considered to be already extinct by the mid-nineteenth century until a small colony was found near the Yucatán Peninsula in 1866. Seal killings continued, and the last reliable report of the animal alive was in 1952 at Serranilla Bank. The IUCN declared it extinct in 1996. The Japanese sea lion was common around the Japanese islands, but overexploitation and competition from fisheries drastically decreased the population in the 1930s. The last recorded individual was a juvenile in 1974.
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