Great Bear Rainforest (Part 1)

One of the reasons I haven't posted in a while is because Joan and I took a trip with Natural Habitat Adventures, sailing along the coast of British Columbia to investigate the wildlife of the Great Bear rainforest. The trip was organized by Candice (Candy) Andrews; we met her on a trip to Patagonia in 2007 run by Natural Habitat, and she now includes us in her Travel Group, whose original nucleus was focused around the University of Wisconsin.

We flew to Vancouver, where we met with the rest of the group (we all stayed at the airport hotel). It was reassuring to already know 6 of the group from last summer's trip to Churchill, Manitoba to see, primarily, the beluga whales. I say "reassuring" because 12 guests and 5 staff were going to spend a week in close quarters aboard the 68-foot ketch Island Roamer. The next day we flew to Bella Bella, where we stayed the night across the inlet at the Shearwater Lodge and did a little exploring while the Island Roamer got ready for us.

Here's a view back to the lodge, the brown building in center, and the Island Roamer at the far right.

Here's a closer look at the boat as we first saw her.

On one walk Joan and I checked out some retired fishing boats. Sandhill cranes flew overhead giving out a prehistoric-sounding call.

Around noon the next day we embarked on our journey. More than one abandoned fish cannery is suffering from entropy along the BC coast, and we passed one soon after we pushed off.

Even that first afternoon and evening were chock full of wonders for us to ooh and aah over. Humpback whales were in the bay, but close encounters were saved for later in the trip. Our first shore expedition, late that afternoon into dusk, took us to see salmon. Species you may be more familiar with, such as king and sockeye, return to the freshwater streams to breed earlier in the year. In September, it's chum and pink salmon, returning just as the bears are single-mindedly fattening up for the winter. Here's a photo of one deceased chum salmon, the large one, and one pink salmon. 

The chum salmon is the species hunted by the bears, for obvious reasons. The richness of the salmon catch allows coastal bears to weigh hundreds of pounds more than inland bears. But there are recent concerns about crashing chum populations, and the potential impact on the bears.

Here our captain (Ian Giles) and one of the naturalists (Sherry Kirkvold) dissect a chum. 

The lens of the salmon eye is a sphere, of all things: