B. C. SEA-LIOy lyVESTIGATION 19 



SESSIONA . PAPER No. 38a 



$3,021) that the following year several cannerymen decided to co-operate in decreas- 

 ing the number. A levy of $1.50 was made for each boat fishing, and as there were 

 700 boats fishing, this provided a fund of $1,050. Two dollars a tail were offered for 

 Fea-lions, and in thirty-six hours enough tails were obtained to take up all the bounty, 

 that is to say 535 were procured. 



During this year again, on Barkley sound, men were supplied with guns and 

 ammunition and sent to drive the sea-lions away from the schools of herring. They 

 can be chased thus like herds of cattle. Xo effort was made to retrieve any of those 

 shot, but a large number must have been killed. 



In 1915, Wadham's cannery supplied two gasolene fish carriers, and giving twenty 

 men to each a holiday, armed them with rifles and supplied them with between $400 

 and $500 worth of ammunition, sent them off to the rookery to kill sea-lions. The 

 first trip was made in the second or third w^eek in May. and a thousand rounds of 

 ammunition were used. Hundreds must have been killed, but only three noses were 

 taken home. The second hunt took place in the first week in June. This time 200 

 muzzles were obtained, and it was estimated that 750 altogether must have been killed. 

 The muzzles were handed in to the fishery officer for the bounty of $2, which was placed 

 on sea-lions last year by the Department of Fisheries, $5,750 being set aside for that 

 purpose. This bounty was all used up early in June, many muzzles being brought 

 in after the bounty money had all been paid out. 



Of the 2,875 sea-lions for which bounty was paid, 1,160 were killed at or near the 

 Sea Otter group at the mouth of Rivers Inlet, 1,616 on the East and West Haycocks 

 (islands in the cape Scott group) and the few remaining at various spots along the 

 coast. Beside the number mentioned from the Haycocks, 674 were brought in too 

 late for bounty. (These figures were supplied by Mr. F. H. Cunningham, Chief 

 Inspector of Fisheries, the list including the number to whom bounty was paid, the 

 number and the location where obtained. See Appendix B). 



In the two years, therefore, there is positive evidence that 4,074 sea-lions were killed, 

 3,549 in 1915, and 525 in 1914. According to the statements of Fisheries Overseer 

 Saugstad at Rivers inlet, and Boyd at Bella Bella, through w4iom most of the bounty 

 was applied for, there would certainly not be more than 50 per cent saved of those 

 killed. Of the adults, there might not be more than one in ten, but among the pups 

 there would be quite a large proportion. Approximately 75 per cent of the muzzles 

 brought in were from pups. In the localities alone in which sea-lions were killed for 

 bounty in 1914 and 1915, at a conservative estimate there must have been 8,000 killed, of 

 which approximately 6,000 were pups. The number killed in Barkley sound and at 

 isolated spots elsewhere would add materially to this number. At such a rate, extermi- 

 nation would not seem far off. In fact it was practical extermination of the 1915 

 increase on the Sea Otter and Haycock rookeries. 



Comparing these numbers with the estimated number for the whole coast, 11,000, 

 given by Dr. Newcombe as seen in 1913, it would seem that an estimate based on the 

 numbers that may be seen at the rookeries and hauling-out places, must be too low. 

 Even during the pupping season, all the lions will not be on the rookeries at the same 

 time, for while the adult male and female may fast at such a time, there is no evidence 

 that immature individuals do so, and the probability is that they feed then as they 

 do at other times of the year. During the rest of the year, it is known that at times 

 all the members of a herd may be away from the rookery or hauling-out place at one 

 time, but there is no assurance that all of them are ever on the rocks at the same time. 

 Certainly there are times when some are on the rocks and others are in the water, since 

 that has been observed by the commissioners on different occasions. If they are not 

 all on the rocks at the same time, an estimate based on the number seen at any one 

 time would not take into account those in the water. 



