The northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) is harvested commercially by the United States on St. Paul Island of the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, and by the USSR on its Commander and Robben Islands. Japan and Canada, in return for abstention from pelagic sealing, share in these harvests under terms of the Interim Convention on the Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals. Under this same Convention, all four countries cooperate in an international program of conservation and research on the species.