B. C. SEA-LION INVESTIGATION 23 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a 



After Sinclair and his crew had collected the bounty they went back to the Virgin 

 rocks and skinned some of the sea-lions for their hides. They got about 2,000 pounds, 

 when the weather turned bad and prevented any further landings. The wind came in 

 from the west every day about 10 a.m. and kept blowing steadily and strong until 

 evening, when it died down. All that they got from the hides on this trip amounted 

 to $60, but they had the $1,050 bounty money besides. 



The following year, leaving Vancouver on May 12, Sinclair with two others took 

 the 40-foot gasoline schooner Atlintoo up the coast to hunt for sea-lions. They got a 

 few near Smiths inlet. On May 16 they were off Virgin rocks, but very few sea-lions 

 were in sight. They arrived at Eivers inlet May 20, where they tried to get the 

 canners again to put up a bounty fund, but the canners had decided to go hunting sea- 

 lions on their own account. Sinclair describes the hunting party from the canneries 

 as composed of sixteen or twenty men armed with "pop guns," twenty-two rifles, 

 revolvers, and other firearms. They left Eivers inlet 2 a.m. one Sunday, went to 

 Virgin rocks, and got back about four in the afternoon. They were not successful, 

 as they had begun too early. Four noses were all they had. (The bounty mark had 

 been changed from tails to noses.) Later, many other parties from Eivers inlet went 

 out to Virgin rocks, until from much shooting the sea-lions got scared off. On 

 June 3 Sinclair and his crew got fourteen noses after making a landing on Virgin 

 rocks. He found the sea-lions timid, for as soon as they saw the launch they got 

 off the rocks into the water, and even the mothers left their young when the hunters 

 landed. " The sea-lions went off like sheep." Pie was dissatisfied with Virgin rocks 

 and went to Calvert island, where he anchored, and got four noses one day, ten another, 

 and eight another. In all he got fifty-seven noses, and landed at Eivers inlet, where 

 he collected on them in the name of George Allen. Fifteen noses he brought to 

 Vancouver and collected on them there. 



Mr. Sinclair declares that to make a success of sea-lion hunting it is necessary 

 to be able to land on Virgin rocks every day or every other day. He says that if 

 there had been a bounty in 1914 he could have killed 90 per cent of those on Virgin 

 rocks. If he had been offered $2,500 to clear the sea-lions off Virgin rocks in 1914 

 and protect the Eivers inlet fisheries he would have accepted it and done the job 

 completely. The proper way to attack these animals to reduce their numbers is to 

 get the old ones first. When females are pupping the old sea-lions never leave the 

 rocks to feed or do anything else. The bull sea-lions are as thin as rakes after the 

 cows are done pupping, at which time they are all very voracious. If it is desired to 

 exterminate the sea-lions, all the rookeries should be hunted at the same time. During 

 the pupping season they are easily fooled, since they persist in staying on the breed- 

 ing grounds. Sinclair would take six or seven good shots and reach the rocks about 

 June 1. He would hide three men on the rocks with orders to shoot only the old 

 ones and to shoot to kill, aiming at the spot just below the ear. The old ones will 

 not leave the rocks at this time if they are not fired at from the water, and the pups 

 cannot, for they are not strong enough, as they are suckled by the mothers for ten 

 (lays or two weeks after birth. When the adults are killed the pups can readily be 

 clubbed, and if not they would die of starvation. 



Sinclair is of the opinion that bounty should not be paid unless the hide were 

 brought in, as the hide could be sold for more than the bounty. He would be willing 

 to hunt sea-lions, collecting a bounty on the hide of $1 for pups, $3 for females, and 

 $2 for bulls. He says also that bounty paid on sea-lions killed at a long distance from 

 any locality where fishing is in operation is money thrown away. He thinks East 

 Haycocks, Tree Nob island, Butterwortb rocks, Massett, Banks island. Price island, 

 Bonilla banks, and Aristazable island are too far away from Eivers inlet to allow 

 sea-lions from them to be the cause of depredations to fishing. 



An article appeared in the Pacific Motor-Boat^ Seattle, Wash., in November, 1915, 

 treating of sea-lion hunting by motor-boat in Oregon, so pertinent to the Canadian 



38a— 3A 



