ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



BIDARRAH". READY FOR ITS COVERING OF SEA LION SKINS 

 is type of native boat is used as a lighter at the Pribilof and 



Commander Islands for loading and unloading ship: 



carcass should be taken into consideration in 

 any plan adopted.'' 



Commercial fishermen in general have not dis- 

 tinguished themselves for broadmindedness. A 

 fight to save the pelican has just been won in 

 the legislature of Florida, fishermen having in- 

 troduced bills to permit the killing of pelicans, 

 gulls and other birds which they describe as 

 "terrifically destructive to food fishes." A bill 

 introduced in the New Jersey legislature to per- 

 mit the killing of gulls was barely defeated. 



The conservator of wild life has little chance 

 to sit with folded hands. The tendency to de- 

 stroy wild creatures not immediately serviceable 

 to man always exists. 



We know little of the food habits of sea lions 

 and less of salmon after they enter the sea. 

 Perhaps the salmon has an enemy in some form 

 of marine life which is held in check by the sea 

 lion. Such relationships are well known to sci- 

 ence. The Pacific salmon and sea lions have 

 dwelt closely together for ages, and were once 

 infinitely more numerous, and it might not be 

 well to divorce them. 



If bv some magic the sea lions could be wiped 

 out of existence, the commercial fish catchers 

 would doubtless be reckless enough to do it. 

 They would be incapable of appreciating in- 

 juries that might result from disturbance of Na- 

 ture's balance. Naturalists are broader minded. 



The investigations made in British Columbia 

 show that the killing of sea lions prior to 1916 

 on the rookeries adjacent to the Rivers Inlet re- 

 gion, served to keep them away that year. The 

 manager of the canneries located there admitted 



that it was not necessary to 

 kill sea lions, but that it 

 would suffice merely to 

 drive them away from that 

 neighborhood. The commis- 

 sion very properly declines 

 to favor any plan looking 

 toward extermination, it 

 having been shown that sea 

 lions can be frightened 

 away from localities where 

 they do some damage. This 

 they suggest could best be 

 accomplished through the 

 Federal Department of 

 Fisheries, and add that "In- 

 discriminate and promiscu- 

 ous killing should not be 

 tolerated." 



The species under con- 

 sideration is Steller's sea 

 lion (Eumetopias sielleri). 

 which is found from California to Bering Sea 

 and the Asiatic Coast. It is the largest of all 

 sea lions. The writer killed a specimen on the 

 Alaska Peninsula nearly thirteen feet in length. 

 It probably attains a weight of more than 

 1 tOO pounds. Although as yet of little commer- 

 cial interest, it has always been of great impor- 

 tance to the Aleutian Islanders, who make use 

 of its skin, oil and flesh. The huge skin is the 

 covering of their boats, the intestines split and 

 sewed together are made into excellent rain- 

 proof garments, while the stomach is used for 

 the storage of oil. On the Pribilof and the 

 Commander Islands the supply of sea lions is 

 carefully conserved, their skins being used in 

 tin construction of the great lighters or "bidar- 

 rahs" used in the loading and unloading of 

 ships. A photograph of this efficient native 

 craft is presented in this Bulletin. 



We cannot believe that the civilized world, 

 having hitherto made little use of this large and 

 abundant animal, can afford to destroy it for 

 comparatively trivial reasons. While its num- 

 bers run into thousands, the figures count for 

 little when compared with the millions that 

 would have to be used in numbering the salmon. 

 The world is now, as never before, consider- 

 ing its supplies of food and oil and leather. The 

 sea lion constitutes one of the resources of the 

 sea. It must not be destroyed because its pres- 

 ence irritates salmon fishermen. Although for- 

 merly more numerous than at present, it pro- 

 duced no known effect on the stupendous runs 

 of salmon that crowded the Pacific salmon riv- 

 ers before wholesale and often unregulated com- 

 mercial fishini; decimated them. 



