REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 113 



b}^ representetives of the Fish Commission, the Department of Agri- 

 culture, and other l)ranches of the Government, on account of hick of 

 evidence showing the destructive habits of the sea lions; and the desired 

 permission was withheld bv the Secretary of the Treasury. 



Dr. C Hart Merriam, of the Department of Agriculture, contrib- 

 uted the following article to Science for May 17, 1901, based on the 

 action of the California authorities: 



Food of Sea Lions. 



The California State board of fish commissioners during the past two years has 

 taken stejis to kill off a very large number of sea lions on the California coast, on the 

 ground that these animals are highly destructive to the salmon fishery. The presi- 

 dent of the board, Mr. Alexander T. Vogelsang, claims that it is not the intention 

 of the board to exterminate the sea lions, but merely to kill "10,000 of the 30,000 

 that now infest our harbor entrance and contiguous territory."* The opinion of 

 observers familiar with the sea-lion rookeries is' that the number of animals has 

 been greatly exaggerated, and that long before Mr. ^'ogelsang has killed the con- 

 templated 10,000 there will not be a living sea lion left on the whole coast. Already 

 many have been killed, and, unless public sentiment is aroused to check the move- 

 ment, some of the most interesting rookeries of the State are in danger of depletion. 

 The fish commissioners have employed men to shoot the sea lions, and are loud in 

 their lamentations because the Government light-house reservations have not been 

 thrown open to the slaughter. 



The local fisherman, the State fish commission, and others assert without qualifi- 

 cation that the sea lions feed extensively on salmon, and the inference from their 

 statements is that the animals subsist chiefly, if not entirely, on fish. A few years 

 ago, when similar comjilaints were made against the fur seals, 1 took the trouble to 

 examine the stomach contents of a large number of these animals, and found to my 

 surprise that the great bulk of their food consisted of squids, hundreds of whose 

 beaks and pens were found in the stomachs, while in only a few instances were any 

 traces of fish discovered. 



In 1899 a well-known naturalist. Prof. L. L. Dyche, of the University of Kansas, 

 spent the months of June, July, August, and September on the California coast, at a 

 time when the sea lions were being slaughtered in the alleged interests of the fisher- 

 men. Professor Dyche became interested in the question of their food, and took 

 the trouble to examine the stomachs of twenty-five sea lions, not one of which con- 

 tained so much as a trace of fish. The region visited extends from Monterey Bay 

 southward along the coast for about 25 miles. 



Between June 25 and July 16 there were washed ashore within 3 miles of Point 

 Pinos, at the mouth of Monterey Bay, eight sea lions which had been shot, the fish- 

 ermen said, because they were feeding on salmon. Professor Dyche examined the 

 stomachs of all of these and has given me a detailed record of the contents of each. 

 It would take too much space to print this in full. Suffice it to state that the remains 

 of squids and cuttlefish {Octopus) were found in all, and that several were filled with 

 large pieces of giant squid. Notwithstanding the fact that at the same time and place 

 salmon were being caught by fishermen, not a fish scale or bone was detected in any of 

 the stomachs. Whenever possible Professor Dyche opened the stomachs in the pres- 

 ence of the fishermen, who invariably expressed the greatest surprise at the result. 



On July 20 Professor Dyche moved his headquarters southward and established a 

 camp about 12 miles below Monterey Bay, between Point Carmel and the light-house, 

 near which is an extensive rookery of sea lions. Between July 20 and August 16 

 the stomachs of seventeen additional sea lions were examined. Eight out of the 



*In a letter to Hon. Lyman J. Gage, Secretary of the Treasury, dated San Francisco, June 3, 1899. 

 F. C. 1902 8 



