16 



PAN-PACIFIC UNION BULLETIN 



only thirteen years after its discovery, 

 the sea cow was practically extermi- 

 nated. 



Steller's sea cow, 24 to 30 feet long 

 when fully grown and weighing three 

 or four tons, was a gregarious, stupid, 

 sluggish animal, comparatively helpless 

 and unable to protect itself by diving. 

 It was therefore an easy matter to ex- 

 terminate it. But it would have been 

 just as easy to protect it, and that is 

 the important point — a commercially 

 very valuable animal that could so 

 easily have been conserved while at the 

 same time yielding annually a large 

 amount of desirable human food by re- 

 stricting the killing to surplus males. 



According to Dr. L. Stejneger the 

 last remaining individual was killed in 

 1768, and Rytina went to join the 

 mammoth and the mastodon and the 

 host of other great animals of the past 

 where they were joined in 1844 by the 

 Great Auk, and b}^ the Passenger Pig- 

 eon in 1916, and where they will ere 

 long be joined by the Elephant Seal, 

 the Sea Otter, the Walrus and many 

 other species unless the world awakes 

 to an appreciation of the imminence of 

 the danger. 



Another example is that of the Guada- 

 lupe fur seal at one time abundant on 

 Guadalupe Island and other islands off 

 the coast of Mexico and California. So 

 abundant was it that more than 200,- 

 000 were taken at the Farallons in 

 1808-1811. 



This slaughter apparently soon re- 

 sulted in the complete extermination of 

 the species on the California coast, but 

 a few survived on some of the southern 

 islands. In 1892 Dr. Chas. H. Town- 

 send and Mr. A. W. Anthony visited 

 Guadalupe Island when they saw at 

 least one specimen which they killed 



but were unable to secure. Since then 

 the species has been thought to be prac- 

 tically extinct. Recently a single in- 

 dividual was captured alive near San 

 Diego, and it is now believed a few 

 may still exist about Guadalupe and 

 others of the small islands off the coast 

 of Lower California. 



The southern sea otter also was 

 abundant at one time on the California 

 and Mexican coast. Old Spanish rec- 

 ords state that 9729 sea otters were 

 taken in 1803 to 1806. A few have 

 been seen in Monterey Bay and else- 

 where as late as 1914. 



In order that these vanishing species 

 may be saved from extinction a care- 

 ful study should be made to determine 

 where the\- now occur and in what num- 

 ber and as much as possible regarding 

 their habits. This investigation should 

 be participated in by the United State^ 

 and Mexico and should be conducted 

 by the Committee on Conservation of 

 Marine Life of the Pacific of the 

 Committee on Pacific Investigations of 

 the Division of Foreign Relations of 

 the National Research Council. Fol- 

 lowing the field investigations a treaty 

 should be entered into by the United 

 -States and all other countries concerned 

 for the protection of these and all other 

 marine mammals of the Pacific. 



One of the best things the Pan-Pa- 

 cific Union can do is to use its good 

 offices with the various countries bor- 

 dering on the Pacific to bring about 

 such an international treaty. In no 

 other way can these valuable animals 

 be saved. 



And when such a convention is ne- 

 gotiated it would be well if it could 

 include not only marine mammals but 

 all other marine life of the high seas 

 such as the fishes, turtles, and sea bird? 



