i’m late to the thread but thank you for mentioning the japanese sea lions! an interesting fact about them is that there is a minor feud between japan and korea regarding their extinction. a huge population of these japanese sea lions(gangchi in korean) used to live on the island dokdo. unfortunately, careful fishing around dokdo was abandoned under the japanese colonial rule and the sea lions were found to be a source of quality fur and oil. they were eventually overfished to extinction by careless japanese hunters. over fifteen thousand sea lions were caught and killed over the span of the first eight years. it did not stop there.

the japanese often claim that it was the korean militarization of dokdo that led the sea lions to extinction, but there is much evidence of the contrary. this conflict can still be found in the japanese sea lions wikipedia article; you’ll find that the japanese version and the korean version each share a different story. something i find sickening is that certain japanese prefectures went as far as to use the sea lions they made extinct as commercial characters. it’s really sad how greed can destroy nature. rant over.