298 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June, 1920 
WHEN THE SEA OTTER FLOURISHED 
SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION REGARDING THE LIFE HISTORY OF THIS VALUABLE 
FUR BEARING ANIMAL AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS ALMOST EXTERMINATED 
By HAROLD McCRACKEN 
T HE Sea Otter affords material for 
one of the most romantically inter- 
esting chapters of frontier history, 
and the history of the fur traders and 
pioneers of the North Pacific coast re- 
gions. In fact, this interesting animal 
and its so highly prized and priced pelt, 
was one of the main and basic reasons for 
the Russian Government establishing it- 
self and its church on the Alaskan Coast. 
Discovered by Steller in 1751, the sea ot- 
ter was originally abundantly distributed 
over almost the entire coastline of the 
North Pacific Ocean, on both the American 
and Asiatic sides north of about the 40th 
parallel. Its pelt was used as a common 
article of clothing; and the animals contin- 
ued in rather abundance until about the 
fourth quarter of the 19th century; 
though the area over which they were 
distributed had by that time become 
somewhat restricted to the Western Coast 
of Alaska and the opposite side of the Ber- 
ing Sea. While today this species is 
closer to the line of extinction than any 
of the other fur bearers, and is to be 
found but rarely along the Southern 
Coast of the Alaska Peninsula; in the 
vicinity of the Aleutian Islands and in a 
few districts on the Siberian Coast. 
It was my good fortune to spend part 
of the winter of 1916-17 in what was 
once the heart of the sea otter hunting 
grounds, and is today the center of their 
present habitat. Forty years ago the 
Russian-Aleut village of Belkofski, near 
the Western end of the Alaska Peninsula, 
was a thriving little metropolis of the 
most romantically crude frontier type, 
and the seat of what was one of the most 
lucrative industries ever carried on under 
the guise of religion — but the rule of the 
Russian Greek-Catholic Church on the 
Alaskan Coast and 
its part in the poli- 
tics and trade in 
that part of the 
world, is a story in 
itself, and not of 
this article. 
While in the vi- 
cinity of Balkof- 
ski, I had as some 
of my every day 
companions, dur- 
ing the several 
months which I 
spent there collect- 
ing natural history 
specimens, a num- 
ber of notable na- 
tive sea otter hunt- 
ers of the old 
school; and I was 
fortunate in get- 
ting some very in- 
teresting first hand 
information re- 
garding the life 
history of the ani- 
mal, and the way it 
was hunted. 
T HE sea otter has a cylindrical body, 
the animal being from four to six 
feet in length, which includes an 
eight to ten inch tail, and weighs from 
about 80 to 110 pounds. The hind part of 
the body ends abruptly in the animal’s 
flat oar-like back feet, which are greatly 
like the flappers of the seal. The fore 
part of the body tapers to a globose head, 
without noticeable constriction of neck. 
The limbs are short, the fore feet being 
unusually small. The eyes are small and 
set high in the skull, the ears are low 
down, a little below the commissure of the 
mouth, and it has short stiff whiskers re- 
sembling those of the seal. The skin is 
very loose upon the body and the fur is 
generally of a deep liver brown color, 
frosted with a scanty growth of long, 
silver-tipped, stiffer hairs and underlaid 
by a preponderance of beautiful soft 
woolly fur which gives the pelt its value. 
They live on clams, mussels, sea- 
urchins, crabs and the tender shoots of 
the kelp. 
The sea otter spends practically its 
entire life on the water; and while the 
nature of its existence might seem to pre- 
clude its speedy extinction, and in real- 
ity has indeed afforded it protection from 
the pelt hunters, yet the fact that it is 
such a monogamous animal, so unprolific, 
and requiring about 20 years to fully 
mature, has caused its welfare as a spe- 
cies to be a most hazardous one and its 
extinction in the face of such ravenous 
persecution a moderately easy one. 
Generally but one young is born, and 
while the pup comes into the world with 
acute sense, sharp teeth and an ample 
amount of vitality, he matures but very 
slowly, and cannot live without the care 
and constant watchfulness of his mother. 
Probably no other animal shows more 
interest and affection for its offspring 
than the female sea otter. She seems to 
take the greatest delight in fondling, 
playing and caring for her pups. For 
hours she will lie on her back in the 
water with her young one clasped between 
her fore feet and sing to and caress it; 
and it is in this same postion that she 
usually sleeps. The state of playfulness, 
however, is not entirely restricted to 
mother and young, for it is common for 
a mature animal to lie on its back in the 
water and singing, play alone with bits 
of kelp or sea weed, which it will toss 
about from paw to paw, seemingly de- 
lighting to catch the piece before it strikes, 
the water. 
During the Spring and Summer 
months, when the weather is good, the 
sea otter goes from 50 to 100 miles off 
shore, living entirely in and on the deep 
sea. It is during this period that the' 
young are generally born — though there 
seems to be no set season of mating — 
and for which the mother resorts to some- 
kelp patch. 
The animals apparently seem to prefer- 
to spend their lives alone or with but. 
their immature young, although smalt 
schools were occasionally seen when the 
species was most abundant. 
The sea otter’s pelt is “prime” at all; 
seasons of the year but they were hunted' 
by large parties of natives in bidarkas or 
skin boats during the summer months,, 
the hunters going far out to sea in their 
seemingly frail crafts. While hunting 
for their quary, the crafts would be 
spread out in open formation, and when 
an animal was located the entire fleet 
would encircle and close in on the hapless 
creature, which would eventually be tired 
out and speared' 
with a harpoon. 
Oftentimes several' 
spears would strike 
the animal as it 
came up for its 
last breath, and' 
the spear which 
struck nearest to 
its head always 
claimed the prize. 
In later years these 
fleets of sea-lion 
skin canoes were 
carried to the hunt- 
ing grounds on the 
decks of sailing 
vessels owned by 
American, British 
or Russian traders, 
though the method 
o f hunting and 
capture continued' 
the same. The sea- 
son’s catch of one 
of these vessels in 
about 1794 would 
(CONTINUED O NT 
PAGE 332) 
Native sea otter hunters in their skin bidarkas starting on a hunt 
