STELLER'S SEA COW

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     Most people are familiar with the great manatees or dugongs that frequent both fresh and salt waters of the world.  Many  in the United States have seen photos of the West Indian Manatee (Trichechus manatus) found in Florida  and elsewhere and know these large herbivorous mammals as gentle giants whose numbers and future are in doubt.

    But not many people know of the Steller's Sea Cow (Hydrodamalus gigas) who resembled the Manatee but grew upwards of 26 feet  to 30 feet and weighed 12 tons.  This was an incredibly large creature, totally aquatic, which appears to be the only northern species of the Order Sirenia.  It was first described in detail by

 

See this informative site

 

Georg Wilhelm Steller who was a ship's naturalist with the Bering expedition to the Pacific polar area.  The ship's crew was shipwrecked on what is now Bering Island off the Kamchatka peninsula in 1741.  The meat of this creature, described as

 

These creatures seemed to concentrate around Bering island and Kommandorskye and Blizhnie Islands in the Bering Sea (sea arrows). Although in the past they extended down to Japan and California.

being tasty as veal, sustained the crew just before they built another ship from the wreck of the old one and escaped.  The meat lasted longer than other meat  sources and the fat was described as tasting like almond oil.  Apparently various whalers and fur hunters slaughtered these peaceful creatures unmercifully and only about one in five that were shot or harpooned were retrieved.  The killing of the last known individual was recorded in 1768.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Wikipedia article

Factbites article with links

Good description

GREAT site!

Another informative site

Various links