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 >Antarctic Seals
BRITISH ANTARCTIC TERRITORY - CONVENTION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF ANTARCTIC SEALS - Postage Stamps
1982 marks the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals in London. Although the Antarctic Treaty, through its Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora, provided adequate conservation for seals on land or on fast ice, prior to the passing of the 1972 Convention there was no internationally agreed protection for seals on the high seas or on floating pack ice away from the coast, where the vast majority of the seals occur. The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals broke new ground in international fishing agreements in providing the proper framework for conservation in advance of exploitation, thus avoiding the possibility of a repetition of the sad history of Antarctic whaling.
The Convention does not ban commercial sealing in the Antarctic seas but sets very conservative permissible catch limits, which are subject to review, bans the taking of certain species, and provides close seasons and reserves where no sealing may take place. So Car no nation has attempted to harvest Antarctic seals under the terms of the Convention.
The six stamps in (his issue depict all the species of the order Pinnipedia that are to be found in the Antarctic, one Otariid {the Antarctic fur seal) and five Phocids, the true seals.
The leopard seal, Hydrurga Icptonyx (5p stamp), is a large seal. Females, which are slightly larger than the males, reach 590kg and a length of nearly 3.4m. Leopard seals are often conspicuous in the sea off penguin rookeries, where they prey on the birds in the water. Besides penguins, they kill and eat young crabeater seals, take fish and consume a large amount of the small crustacean, krill. They are versatile and successful predators and their population numbers at least 220,000. The maximum permitted catch in any year is 12,000.
The Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddelli (l0p stamp), named after the Scottish sealer James Weddell, is the seal most commonly seen on the ice around research stations in the Antarctic. It is a large seal, reaching nearly 3.3m in length and a weight of up to 550kg. Weddell seals feed largely on fish which they catch beneath the ice, often at considerable depths. They breed on fast ice, using tide cracks or other holes in the ice, which they keep open by gnawing with their teeth, to leave the water. Weddell seals breed further south than any other mammal. There are probably at least 730,000 Weddell seals in the Antarctic and the maximum annual permissible catch is 5,000.
The southern elephant seal, Miroungal leonina (13p stamp), is the largest of all living Pinnipedia, the mature males reaching a length of about 5.8m from nose to tail tip and a weight of about 4 tonnes. Females are very much smaller, about a tenth of the size of the males. The main breeding grounds are north of British Antarctic Territory, with about 300,000 breeding on South Georgia, and other major populations on lies Kerguelen, Heard Island and Macquarie Island. Many elephant seals visit the Antarctic to moult during the summer months, when heaps of 50 or more can be found lying about the shore. The moult is peculiar, the outer layer of skin peeling off at the same time as the sparse hairs are shed. The elephant seal is absolutely protected under the convention.
The Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella (17p stamp), is likewise more typical of South Georgia than of the Antarctic proper. This species (and, to a lesser extent, the elephant seal) was very heavily persecuted by American and British sealers in the nineteenth century. The fur seals were reduced to only a few tens of individuals by the early years of this century. In the I950's, however, they underwent a population explosion and now number about half a million, mainly on South Georgia. There are small breeding populations in the South Shetland and South Orkney Islands but most fur seals seen in British Antarctic Territory are young males from South Georgia which come ashore to moult in the summer, like the elephant seals, fur seals are absolutely protected.
The Ross seal, Ommatophoca rossi (25p stamp), named after the British explorer Sir James Clark Ross, is the most rarely seen of the Antarctic seals. This is because it frequents areas of heavy consolidated pack ice where it is difficult for ships to penetrate. It is not particularly rare, being probably about as common as the leopard seal. It is completely protected. Ross seals weigh up to about 190kg and reach a length of almost 2.15m, the females being slightly larger than the males. The Ross seal feeds largely on squid and is believed to dive deeply to find its prey. A strange characteristic is its habit of inflating its throat and making surprisingly loud and musical sounds.
The crabeater seal, Lobodon cardnophagus (34p stamp), is by far the most abundant of the Antarctic seals. Indeed, it is the most abundant seal in the world. Its estimated population of about 15 million is equal to that of all the other seals in the world put together! The permissible annual take is 175,000. It is a medium sized seal, reaching about 230kg and a length of about 2.6m. "Family groups", each consisting of a male, a female and her pup, are found on the pack-ice floes in the spring. The male defends the female against other crabeater seals, leopard seals and people, but until she comes on heat the female is very aggressive and old males are usually very scarred about the head and neck. Despite its name, the crabeater seal feeds not on crabs (which are very scarce in the Antarctic) but on the small shrimp-like krill, l-Mphausia superba, which is also the principal food of the baleen whales and many sea-birds.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Designer: R. Granger Barrett
Printer: WalsaJl Security Printers
Printing process: Lithography Layout of stamp sheet: 50 (2 x 25)
Size of stamp: 24.13 x 60.96mm
Watermark: C.A. Spiral
Perforation gauge: 12 per 2cm
Issue content: 5p, lOp, 13p, 17p, 25p &34p stamps, plus an official First Day Cover size 110 x 220mm
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