B. C. SEA-LIOX lyVESTIGATlON 9 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a 



Although permission to kill sea-lions on federal reservations was refused, the 

 commission, by means of arming their patrols, killed a great numfcer of sea-lions at 

 other points along the coast. The report states : " It may be added that our activities 

 have been exerted, nevertheless, to the destruction of a large number of these animals 

 upon such rookeries and other places along the coast as are not subject to the control 

 of the Treasury Department of the United States. The effect on the salmon industry 

 is already apparent, as, since the summer of 1809, the number of sea-lions present 

 in the bays and rivers has been much less than formerly." Apparently the number 

 killed by the patrol was greatly augmented by the number killed by the fishermen 

 themselves. 



The destruction at that time seems to have had the desired effect, as since then no 

 serious complaint has been made to the commission. We have this on the authority 

 of Mr. N. B. Scofield, who was in 1898, and is now in 1916, in the employ of the 

 California Fish commission. Sea-lions have been so reduced in numbers that in 1909 

 a law was passed, forbidding the killing, maiming or capturing sea-lions, in the waters 

 of Santa Barbara channel and on the land adjacent thereto, in order to prevent the 

 extermination of the black or California sea-lion. 



As evidence that California was not alone in the demand for reduction in tlie 

 number of sea-lions, it may be stated that the Oregon Legislature passed a Bill,^ 

 offering a bounty of $2.50 for each sea-lion killed in the waters of the state or within 

 one marine league of the shore. On account of faulty wording of the Bill, the money 

 ■was not available, but the Fishermen's Protective Union raised a fund by private 

 subscription to hire men to shoot the lions on their breeding grounds. In Washing- 

 ton, too, there has been some complaint at times but nothing definite seems to have 

 been done. 



3. PREVIOUS WORK OX THE SE'A-LION QUESTION IX BRITISH COLUMBI.\. 



So far as is known to the present commission, the only investigations hitherto 

 made in British Columbia are those which were conducted by the chairman and his 

 son, in the year 1913. In the spring of that year, the chairman was requested by 

 the British Columbia authorities in Victoria, B.C., to conduct an investigation to 

 disclose the numbers of sea-lions that frequent and breed upon our coast, and the 

 number and locations of the islands where they breed. This was in consequence of 

 the many complaints made that sea-lions were seriously damaging the fisheries. 



No information whatever was furnished to those in charge of this inquiry of 

 1913 relating to previous controversies regarding the food habits of sea-lions in 

 California or other states, but before starting for the north, such literature as was 

 accessible was consvilted, and an examination was made of the report of the United 

 States Commissioner of Fisheries for 1902, to which reference was made by Horna- 

 day and others when describing the California and Steller's sea-lion. This report 

 at once revealed the widely divergent opinions entertained by competent natujalists 

 as to the food habits of the sea-lions, and special pains were taken in the field to 

 procure from all sources information as to their food, and the evidence of the older 

 Indians, who in their yoimger days had depended largely on sea-lions for food, and 

 had xitilized their skins and other parts in various ways, was noted. 



The result of the inquiry made by these investigators is mentioned in the 

 annual provincial report for the year 1913, published in 1914. The ground 

 covered by it included the coast line from Boundary bay, North Latitude 

 49°, to the Nass river in 54° 40', at various points in which the ofiicials of 

 more than thirty salmon canneries and herring plants were personally inter- 

 viewed, and further information was obtained from their employees, both white 

 and Indian. Amongst these points were the lower Fraser river. Knights inlet. 

 Alert bay, Quathiaski cove. Rivers inlet, Bella Coola, Kimsquit, Namu, Bella 



