Tourist attraction or nuisance? Elephant seals were once ‘emerging problem’ in SLO County.

Elephant seals have been a tourist attraction since the 1990s.

But they were once valued for another reason.

An article published in the Daily Evening Tribune on Jan. 10, 1884, talks about a southern hemisphere hunt on South Georgia Island between Argentina and Antarctica. Whaling ships were sent to slaughter the pinnipeds for oil and hides.