"Warrior" with a freshly caught salmon. For several days, she took her kills up into the forest to eat to avoid the attention of a larger black bear
Hartley Bay & the Great Bear Rainforest
We stayed in Hartley Bay, a town of the Gitga'at Nation nestled in the Great Bear Rainforest. Above is the view out towards the rainforest from their harbour. The cruise ship was a National Geographic cruise also in the area for rainforest exploration and whale-watching.
My hosts had two very friendly cats, but one in particular (Hiccup) really demanded a lot of attention. Several nights, she slept curled up in a purring ball on my chest, which was a great way to get to sleep
Warrior
Warrior was the first spirit bear we spotted on this trip. She was given that name for the prominent scar across her snout. We saw her the most of any bear over the course of the week.
Warrior's typical approach to catching salmon involved almost no movement. She'd observe the fish and then with a single movement, she'd snatch one right out of the water. On our last day, however, she was chasing them more aggressively, leading to the sequence below.
Salmon spotted
Almost on it
The single strike
Success!
Strawberry
Strawberry was a more elusive spirit bear. We were lucky enough to see her one afternoon, but otherwise only heard reports of sightings from other groups. She was named for her strawberry blonde mane.
Black Bears
As Spirit Bears are a variant of black bears, we also saw many black bears in the area. They were noticeably less successful with fishing and needed to spend much more energy tearing through the water to try and catch salmon.
Frantically chasing a salmon
Looking a little sad and embarrassed when it got away
Humpback Whales Bubble-Feeding
As the bears often weren't active until the late afternoon, we took a few mornings to follow the humpback whales as they hunted herring using a "bubble net" approach. Two or more humpbacks would dive and blow bubbles as they swam in ever tighter circles around schools of herring. When the herring were disoriented and trapped in a tight ring of bubbles, the whales would shoot straight upwards with their mouths open, catching the herring as they surfaced.
If you look closely, you can see two lucky herring that escaped this whale's mouth right near its eye
Surfacing
Getting a big mouthful
Diving for another round
If you look closely, you'll see lots of herring making their escape
Other Wildlife
Steller's Jay - this bird was hopping around the rocks looking for salmon roe to eat
Ravens often greeted us in the mornings at the harbour
A California Gull looking for crabs or small fish amongst the rocks in the harbour
This seal popped up to stare at me while I waited for the morning boat to the rainforest
An American Dipper with some kind of aquatic larva
