jamesinalaska
Member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2015
- Messages
- 256
The pink and silver salmon are spawning and are crowding at the mouths of the local creeks. Of course with all those salmon so tightly schooled the sea lions are swimming close to the shore for some easy feeding. I have heard that sea lions can eat 45 or more pink salmon a day, and looking at the size of those animals I can believe it. They are massive, easily larger than Hereford bull. But for all of their size and weight they remain incredibly fast and agile swimmers, even out-swimming the fish they feed on. Me and my friend (a native Alaskan) were on the dock watching one large sea lion bull feasting on a school of pinks. The bull would dive and disappear shortly and then come to surface with a salmon in his jaws, shake it with violence to tear and kill it, and then bite its head off. The fishes' heads the bull would spit out into one direction and then grab the bodies which he would chew and swallow in one or two quick gulps. Sea lions must have horrible breath.
The whole affair was like a Thanksgiving party for that bull, as it was obvious he was having "fun" with such easy pickings. We watched the show for a bit and my friend spoke about hunting sea lions. He said it was almost always by boat (I suppose the haul-outs are usually to remote) and if one is found they will approach as carefully as possible to keep from frightening the the animal, once the animal is within range he must guess where he expects the animal to surface and have his rifle ready. If he gets it right a bullet through the upper chest, neck or head dispatches the animal and then the boat and crew must race over to the dying or dead animal to secure it. He called them "sinkers" as apposed to "floaters" like sea otters. My friend said if all the air escapes the body before they are retrieved they begin to sink, sometimes irretrievably. But my friend said the trick was to carry a halibut pole, to fish up the slowing sinking animal.
I asked my friend about going with him on his next sea lion hunt. He laughed and said I was the wrong color. I offered to go as the camp cook and errand boy but he said I wasn't even allowed to be in the same boat with a dead sea lion. I think he is right. If one of our game wardens had even a suspicion that I, a non-native, was involved in any way with the taking of marine mammal, my life would be confiscated from me.
So that is how to hunt sea lions. All you need is a sea worthy skiff, a bit of good luck, a halibut pole with 200 pound line, and a 30-30 lever action rifle.
The whole affair was like a Thanksgiving party for that bull, as it was obvious he was having "fun" with such easy pickings. We watched the show for a bit and my friend spoke about hunting sea lions. He said it was almost always by boat (I suppose the haul-outs are usually to remote) and if one is found they will approach as carefully as possible to keep from frightening the the animal, once the animal is within range he must guess where he expects the animal to surface and have his rifle ready. If he gets it right a bullet through the upper chest, neck or head dispatches the animal and then the boat and crew must race over to the dying or dead animal to secure it. He called them "sinkers" as apposed to "floaters" like sea otters. My friend said if all the air escapes the body before they are retrieved they begin to sink, sometimes irretrievably. But my friend said the trick was to carry a halibut pole, to fish up the slowing sinking animal.
I asked my friend about going with him on his next sea lion hunt. He laughed and said I was the wrong color. I offered to go as the camp cook and errand boy but he said I wasn't even allowed to be in the same boat with a dead sea lion. I think he is right. If one of our game wardens had even a suspicion that I, a non-native, was involved in any way with the taking of marine mammal, my life would be confiscated from me.
So that is how to hunt sea lions. All you need is a sea worthy skiff, a bit of good luck, a halibut pole with 200 pound line, and a 30-30 lever action rifle.
