24 DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVAL SERVICE 



8 GEORGE V, A. 1918 



ijiquiry that, with the permission of the publisher, Mr. Miller Freeman, it is repro- 

 duced in part: — 



"A rather unique industry is carried on each year in motor-boats off the 

 coast of Curry county, Oregon. The Rogue River reef and the Cape Blanco 

 reef are each year combed for sea-lions, and the work of killing them is often 

 hazardous and dangerous. 



" The killing is not done for amusement, but for profit, the skins being 

 valued at from $4 to $6 each, and some other portions of the carcass being of 

 sufficient value to make the average for each animal killed between $5 and $6. 



The annual slaughter does not take place until the young are born, usually 

 in July and August. This plan of leaving the pups insures a supply for the 

 hunters the next year and there is no danger of the disappearance of the sea-lions 

 from the vicinity where they are sought. 



The largest rocks in the Blanco reef are off shore from three to seven miles 

 and the hunters must go well prepared. It is possible they might be obliged 

 to stay about the rocks two or three days at a time, for the ocean occasionally 

 becomes so rough the small boats are obliged to stay in the lee until the weather 

 improves. 



Until late years the hunters used rowboats in which to seek the lions and 

 sometimes were on the rocks several days before they could return ashore at 

 Port Orford, the nearest town. Recently, however, gasoline boats are utilized 

 altogether in hunting. It is customary to go from shore to the rocks where the 

 sea-lions make their home, in a small open craft, and, after making a kill, the 

 skins are picked up from the reef by a larger craft, the gasoline schooner Tramp, 

 a 15-ton boat of Marshfield. Captain John Swing has transported the sea-lion 

 hides in the Tramp from the two reefs for the past ten years, trans-shipping 

 them for San Francisco at Coos Bay. 



The average number of hides secured each season varies from 300 to 400, 

 the hunters feeling they have done a profitable season's work if they make a 

 clear profit of $1,000, since the season is only for a month, and the time goes 

 quickly while they are engaged. The hides are used by manufacturers for 

 belting. They are prepared by salting them heavily but not tanned until they 

 reach their destination at San Francisco. The skins are heavy, the hunters 

 finding them occasionally weighing 150 pounds when secured from an animal 

 of extraordinary size. 



Taking the skins from the sea-lions is an occupation that calls for quick 

 and expert ability. A good skinner can take a hide off in from five to seven 

 minutes, when working at ordinary speed. Robert Forty and James Crewe 

 each has a record of skinning a common-sized animal in three and a half 

 minutes. While there is no means of weighing the sea-lions, the hunters 

 estimate their weight from 1,500 to over 3,000 pounds. The larger the pelt, of 

 course, the better the price is secured." 



Thus it will be seen that in paying a bounty of $2 for each muzzle of a slain sea- 

 lion and disregarding the hide and carcass, there is lost an opportunity to encourage 

 the prevention of fisheries depredations and at the same time, by means of a business 

 organization centered in the government officials, make the sea-lion, through its hide 

 and carcass, pay the bounty and more. When further facts are obtained concerning 

 methods of organization, aiming at using for commercial purposes the sea-lion carcass, 

 the commission should be able to outline a plan that would achieve that economical 

 and conservative result. 



