Memories of the Seal Trade
Trade in seal products was a thing of the past by the time Frederick McCoy established himself as the authority on the natural history of Victoria. The seal population had been decimated and the industry replaced by the wool boom and gold rush.
As always, McCoy was interested in the way natural resources could be turned to profit. He carefully collected fragments of information about an industry that otherwise may have drifted from the historical record.
The Hon. David Moore has kindly furnished me with a great deal of valuable information respecting the old trade at Sydney in the Fur-Seals of this species. The males he mentions were more valuable than the others; these were entered in the invoices under the trade term of "Wigs," the females entered as "Klapmatches," and the young as "Pups." The trade, he informs me, has now entirely ceased in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia...
Most significantly, McCoy was provided with detailed information from Mounted Constable George Ardill and an old sealer named Ross, both resident at Philip Island during the late 1870s.
In reply to your enquiries relative to the Seals which frequent the Seal Rocks off Phillip Island:-The Seals come to the rocks about 1st October. The time of bringing forth the pups is between 10th November and 10th December. They do not commence to breed until they are three years old. The male (or bull) during the pupping season will ascend the rocks and stop for one or two months without food, and is extremely attentive to the female (or cow) and pups. When the females fight and quarrel he restores order. The bull is very fat in the beginning of the season and yields from five to ten gallons of oil, and in three weeks after will hardly yield one gallon, the yield of course depending on the age and size of the bull. The cows are seldom killed, as they have very little fat. It is against the rule of sealers to kill a cow or the pups.'