The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-08-05
IN ANI|DOE 70 TYPHOID WILL WAR ON SEA LIONS
PACIFIC COAST FISHERMEN ARE
AFTLR THEM.
Lions Destroy Immense Quantities of
Salmon-Men to be Hired to Hunt
And Shoot Them.

Fishermen of the North Pacific coast
are undertaking a movement FOR the
destruction of the sea lions, the inNe-
terate enemies of salmon and other
food fishes, and which annually make
inCalCulable ravages in the schools or
Chinooks, steelheads and other Varie-
ties OF saliCon that hover off the WASH
ington and Oregon coast The last ore.
gon Legislature passed bill Offering
bounty of $3.50 for each sea lion Killed
in the waters of the state or within one
marine league of the Oregon shore.
Faulty wording of the bill renders the
money set aside for the purpose I'M
available and the Fishermens Protec-
tive Union has raised a fund by private
subscription to hire men to shoot the
lions at their breeding grounds,
How many salmon each of these mon
sters kills each day is purely matter
of conjecture, but instances are known
where single sea lion has killed and
eaten eighteen salmon i'm a verv few
minutes, and it is certain that many
hundreds of thousands Of royal Chinook
salmon are killed every year by these
pests. When fishing the lions usually
travel in groups of from six to eight,
and they will follow school of fish for
days. They feast on the fish until they
become quite dainty and will take but
one bite from the choicest part of a
salmon leaving the remainder of the
fish to float ashore or to be devoured by
the scavengers of the seas. The lions
vary in size, but when fully grown
about eight or ten feet in length, al
though specimens have been seen fully
eighteen feet long and which would
weight 1000 pounds.
1t Is during the summer months thai
the lions do the greatest amount of
damage. They are numerous at many
places along the Pacific coast, but the
favorite rendezvous appears to be in
the neighborhood of the mouth of the
Columbia river. Thousands of then
congregate at Seal Rock light house
during the breeding season. These
rocks are situated well out from the
beach and can be reached only during
/ the extreme low tides of the summer
months, thus rendering the retreat OF
the lions comparatively safe from at
tack except during isolated periods AT.
/ ter leaving the rocks at the close of the
breeding season the lions are even
more voraciOus than usual, and the
schools of fish in that region of the
ocean have short shrft. Numbers OF
the lions gather off the mounth of the
Columbia river, and the sands of the
Jetty are black with them during the
warm hours of the day. The huge
mammals appear to be warned by in
sUnct of the approach of a school OF
| salmon, which is always the signal fol
/ IL putting 10 SEA, ana DetOre the
/ return thousands of the choicest fish in
| the world have been devoured or sc
7 badly mutilated that they will die
Commercially the sea lions are of littly
value, and not enough can be realized
from their sale to make the killing OF
them profitable.
This, coupled with the extreme diff
fculty of securing the carcasses of the
animals as the lions take to the water
as soon as they are shot makes the
hunting of them precarious means of
livelihood and renders it absolutely
/ necessary that bounty be paid if the
/ lions are TO be exteTmnated. The hides
which weigh when green about "a
pounds, sell for half a cent "A pound.
| The whiskers of the male sell for from
10 cents to - cents for the largest
which are from 10 to u inches in length.
Those of the female are fewer i'm num-
Der and less valuable, but longer some
reaching is inches i'm length.
a vast amount Of valuable fishing
gear is destroyed each year by the lions
big male lion, while in pursuit of a
salmon, will become entangled in a giIl
net or tran and before it can possibly
be released will by its desperate LASH
ings and biting tear the web into
shredS. The amount Of damage done
each season would be difficult to esti-
mate, but 1t is certainly enormous. and
their determination at the least WoulI
be of untold benefit to the fishing in
duStry of the coast