26 DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVAL SERVICE 



8 GEORGE V, A. 1918 



evidence was obtained to prove that during a certain time of the year at least, food 

 fish are eaten in large quantities by grey sea-lions. As in this instance the state- 

 ments of the fishermen are definitely corroborated, there is evidently a fair basis 

 for accepting other statements upon which there is general agreement, provided 

 always that allowance must be made for a bias, natural to those interested in this as 

 in any other question. It is on account of this bias that the evidence from inde- 

 pendent witnesses is always desirable. Taking that into consideration, it is recom- 

 mended that the commission should continue to study the life-history of the sea-lion, 

 particularly during the breeding season, which corresponds to the time of the big run 

 of sockeye at Rivers inlet. This should be accomplished with comparative ease but 

 the habits during the remainder of the year cannot be so readily ascertained as in 

 such investigation many difficulties will have to be overcome. 



The amount of food required just after the pupping season cannot be considered 

 as an index for the rest of the year. That taken by the sea-lions in Barkley sound 

 in November and December would be much nearer the average. The results of feeding 

 in captivity do not help much as opinions differ so markedly. Thus, as previously 

 quoted, Homaday states that 12 pound's a day or less is sufficient food for an adult 

 male sea-lion, while Scammon says, the keeper at Woodward's Gardens, San Francisco, 

 informed him that he fed a male and a female sea-lion, regularly, every day, fifty 

 pound's of fresh fish. ^ In any case, the amount of food required by a sea-lion in 

 captivity, where its movements are necessarily much restricted', might be very different 

 to the amount required by one during the active life out in the sea, where, in many 

 instances, the food is so plentiful that there is great temptation to eat more than 

 actual necessity calls for. 



The presence of dogfish remains in the stomach of a sea-lion caught in Barkley 

 sound opens up a large question that should be investigated, particularly in view of 

 the statement that the dogfish cease to bother the herring nets as soon as the sea-lions 

 appear in the neighbourhood. While a definite comparison of the damage done to 

 the herring fishery by the dogfish and the sea-lion is impossible, this at least can be 

 said : while it does not pay to fish for herring when the dogfish interfere and the sea- 

 lions are absent, it does pay to do so when the reverse is the case. If the disappear- 

 ance of the dogfish is in any sense due to the presence of the sea-lion, the sooner the 

 matter is investigated the better. 



Although at the present time no other species is so much a pest as the dogfish, 

 there are other undesirable species, and while the commission has no definite infor- 

 mation as to the relation of any of these to the sea-lion, the possibility of the sea-lion's 

 maintaining equilibrium in such cases is worthy of consideration. 



While the commissioners recommend that sea-lions should be driven away or 

 greatly reduced in numbers where it is evident that they are doing appreciable damage, 

 they are not satisfied that there is any necessity for decreasing the numbers at other 

 rookeries, except after some organized plan by which the pups could be free from 

 injury, as in the case mentioned off the Oregon coast, in order that the industrial 

 value of the sea-lions should be conserved, and more particularly in view of the pos- 

 sible friendly offices of the sea-lion that suggest further inquiry. Even in the case 

 where it is considered necessary to diminish the number of sea-lions materially, the 

 monetary value of the hide and carcass should be taken into consideration in any 

 plan adopted. 



CHARLES F. NEWOOMBE. 

 WM. HAMAR GREENWOOD. 

 C. McLEAN ERASER. 



1 Scammon, C. M.* Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast, 1874, page 135. 



