GREAT BEAR BOUND

Kermode or Spirit Bear 

Thirteen minutes in the air and we had arrived at Vancouver Airport from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island to meet our connecting flight to Prince Rupert where we would set out on an eight day discovery through British Columbia's magnificent Great Bear Rainforest on MV Swell. Our second adventure on the Swell.

The area's name - Great Bear Rainforest - was actually coined by environmental groups in the early 1990s. That, together with its elusive inhabitant, the Kermode Bear, has created a mystique of sorts that we hope will protect the future of this beautiful wilderness and its inhabitants.

Black Bear

As for the Kermode Bear's origins, it is a subspecies of the North American black bear with a rare recessive gene that produces a white or cream coat.  It is also known more romantically as the “Spirit Bear” - ghost of the forest.  

Regarded as sacred by First Nations, Spirit Bears are estimated to be about 400 in number and are only found in the Great Bear Rainforest, a 6.4 million hectare ecosystem on British Columbia’s north and central coast.  Experts say that approximately one in ten black bears have light fur and in order to produce white coated cubs, both parents, whether white or black, must carry the gene.

Pristine in the extreme, the area is the world’s largest untouched temperate rainforest but surprisingly 85% of its old growth was only permanently protected from industrial logging in February 2016. 

MV Swell

Pacific salmon are the lifeblood of this wilderness and when their numbers return to spawn Spirit and Black Bears troll the creeks to feast on the dying salmon before going into hibernation. We hoped the timing of our trip would be an ideal opportunity to see one of these magnificent white bears.  There had been lots of rain and creeks and inlets were at elevated levels, enabling the salmon to undertake their dramatic spawning cycle, drawing the bear population, white and black, into the water to hunt.  

Jeff - deck hand, photographer,
and oh yes, marine biologist

By chance we met up with Jeff en route, one of Swell's crew on our Haida Gwaii trip who was rejoining the vessel after a break. Jeff and his crew mates had done a stellar job of helping us appreciate nature's gift on our own doorstep when we traveled through Gwaii Haanas in May. We knew what was in store - another voyage of discovery to a region of our Province we knew next to nothing about. 

As we parted company with Jeff in Prince Rupert I had jokingly requested roses and champagne in our cabin.  He reminded me that there probably wouldn’t be enough room for us and these enhancements. Our Red Alder digs on board are functional, reasonably comfortable in a mini sort of way, but space is not one of its attributes. This is a 100 year old converted tug after all. With that in mind we decided to make the most of our overnight stay at Prince Rupert's Crest Hotel.  Its waterfront restaurant overlooked a misty landscape. 

The Skeena salmon dinner was superb and the Prince Rupert Wheelhouse Flagship pale ale refreshing. We said goodnight to the Swell, docked a short walk away.

See you tomorrow.