A sea lion estimated to weigh more than a ton had been terrorizing people and pets in Petersburg’s South Harbor. It was killed on Dec. 7, but not by law enforcement. Instead, authorities collaborated with Brandon Ware, who is Tlingit and grew up hunting marine mammals. He plans to use the hide and whiskers for traditional regalia.
Harbormaster Glorianne Wollen said the sea lion had been snapping at people and pets, stalking them as they walked the docks. She said people felt hunted.
Wollen said that when there’s an aggressive sea lion hanging around, she’s always concerned about people with pets and little kids. She said a sea lion can climb up and easily move around on the docks.
“It’s a big, lumbering mass. … There’s a lot of aggression built up, and they can move pretty quick.”
She guessed this sea lion weighed upward of 2,500 pounds, and she was getting a lot of complaints about it. She filed several reports with the National Marine Fisheries Service officer in Petersburg. Worried that something bad might happen, she contacted the state troopers, too.
But federal law protects sea lions and other marine mammals. If law enforcement wants to kill a problem sea lion, they need permission from the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Police Chief Jim Kerr said the department had tried deterrents such as tasers, but the sea lion was unfazed.
When the department kills a sea lion, NMFS takes head for necropsies and the rest gets discarded, the chief said. That doesn’t sit right with him.
“If you harvest an animal, you want to use it to its full potential,” Kerr said. “And I look at the sea lion the same way. I don’t want to waste anything.”
Ware had heard about the aggressive sea lion through the grapevine. He told Kerr he’d love a chance to subsistence harvest the animal. Kerr liked the idea.
“That means it doesn’t go to waste,” the chief said. “The police department was able to alleviate the public safety concern, and Ware, being Alaska Native, could legally harvest it for cultural reasons and continue the tradition of harvesting sea lions.”
Kerr gave Ware and his brother permission to use firearms in the harbors. Knowing the family’s history with hunting marine mammals, he said he trusted them to do it safely.
Ware said he and his brother Billy waited for a moment when the sea lion was out in the open, with no chance of a dangerous ricochet.
He said they were careful with their shot placement. They didn’t want to wound the animal, and they didn’t want it to suffer.
“There was a sense of, like, ‘I need to do this right and take this seriously,’” he said. “It’s almost like there’s a pretty big weight on me, but it was good pressure. It’s that good pressure that causes me to perform rather than to freeze up.”
He shot the sea lion once in the head. Then his brother Billy did the same.
They shot the sea lion from a float in the South Harbor and towed it over to Petersburg’s crane dock. They hoisted it up just a bit, to get a thicker line around it.
“As we were lifting it up on the big crane the line snapped, and it sank like a rock down the bottom,” he said.
Ware, his brother, a few family members, police officers and a state trooper all stood around scratching their heads. The water was about 20 feet deep. They needed a diver. But only Alaska Natives were allowed to participate in the harvest, and they didn’t know any Tlingit divers on the island.
Jerod Cook, Petersburg’s National Marine Fisheries Service officer, came to the rescue. Ware said Cook called it “extenuating circumstances” and told him to hire a diver, any diver.
A couple of hours later, the sea lion was in the back of Ware’s truck.
“All I have to do is gently run my knife through it,” he said as he was skinning the animal the next day. “It separates the fat from the body and pulls the skin down a little bit more, just like peeling a banana.”
Ware said he’s not sure what he’ll make with the fur. He sews a lot of hats and mittens, as well as some vests and tunics. He does have a plan for the whiskers, though. They will go on a shakee.at — a traditional Tlingít dancing headdress.
“When you’re dancing, they kind of sway in the wind. It’s just part of the decoration. That being said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shakee.at with whiskers this long.”
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