SEAL FISHERIES 729 



Sea Lions 



Five species of sea lions have, at one time or another, played a part in the seal 

 fisheries of the world. These are the California sea lion, Zalophiis calif ornianus; 

 the Steller sea lion, Eumetopias jubata; Southern sea lion, Otaria byronia; Auck- 

 land sea lion, Phocarctos hookeri; and Gray sea lion, Zalophus lobatus. The Cali- 

 fornia sea lion is found from San Francisco Bay to Lower California, and the 

 Steller sea Hon from San Francisco Bay north to the Bering Sea and on the Asiatic 

 Coast as far south as Japan. The other species are found only in the Southern 

 Hemisphere: the Auckland sea lion at the Auckland Islands, the Gray sea lion in the 

 waters of New Zealand and Australia, and the Southern sea lion along the south- 

 ern coast of South America. 



All these species have been hunted for their hides and their oil. This fishery 

 today is negligible, and in North American waters is nonexistent. California sea 

 lions supply the trained seals of the circus and stage, and are protected from other 

 commercial use. The Steller sea lion is protected in part of its range, and is the 

 target of bounty hunters in other parts. In Alaskan waters from 1908 to 1949 it 

 was accorded almost complete protection, except for local use by aborigines. The 

 increase in numbers was so pronounced that in 1949 all restrictions on killing 

 were removed, except in the vicinity of Bogaslof Island in the Bering Sea, but 

 there has been no commercial interest shown in these huge marine mammals, 

 which may attain a maximum weight of 2,000 pounds. There is a limited sea- 

 lion fishery, the products being meal, oil, and leather, along the South American 

 Coast, particularly Uruguay and Argentina. 



Walrus 



The walrus are confined to Arctic and subarctic waters, and have no represent- 

 atives in the Antarctic regions. As they exist today, there are two species: Atlantic 

 walrus, Odobenus rosmanis; and Pacific walrus, Odobenus divergens. Very sim- 

 ilar in appearance, the differences in these two species are apparent only to the 

 taxonomist. 



Atlantic Walrus. This species is now found in Hudson Bay, Davis Strait, and the 

 coast of Greenland. On the European Coast they are confined chiefly to Spitz- 

 bergen, Novaya Zemlya, and the smaller islands of the Arctic Ocean. These ani- 

 mals once ranged far south of their present habitat, but were exterminated in 

 more accessible waters in the ruthless hunt for ivory, hides, and oil which began 

 in the seventeenth century and accounted for thousands annually. As in the 

 Pacific, the few remaining animals are used almost exclusively by the residents 

 of the remote coasts where they occur. 



Pacific Walrus. The Pacific walrus was formerly abundant in the Alaskan 

 Arctic and Bering Seas as far south as the Pribilof Islands and the Alaska Penin- 

 sula; there is no evidence that their range extended south of the Aleutians. Hunted 

 for their ivory, hides, and oil their numbers were greatly reduced by 1900. The 

 range today extends only to the southern fringe of the Arctic ice pack, about 62 

 degrees north latitude, in January, and these animals remain close to the ice pack 

 as it moves northward in the summer. They usually appear ofi^ St. Lawrence 

 Island in May, pass King Island in early June, and soon thereafter move north- 

 ward through the Bering Strait. In early July they arrive off Point Hope, and a 



