August 2011
In planning this trip we were hoping to make it as far north as The Torngat Mountains National Park. We were told it’s not a question of if you’ll see a bear there but how many. Still, we figured we’d be lucky to see one even if he wasn’t sipping a Coke.
The park has a Polar Bear Safety Video that does a good job of showing different bear behavior from merely curious to aggressive and some things you can do if you encounter a polar bear. Guns aren’t allowed in the park but bear “deterrents” are. They’re basically noise-makers you fire from a small starter gun and bear spray. The alternative is to hire a “bear monitor” to escort you. A bear monitor is an Inuit with a gun that knows polar bear behavior and how to use the gun. The practicalities of having a bear monitor on board weren’t possible on a small sailboat so we loaded up with deterrents and figured we’d be really, really careful.
After picking up my sister-in-law, Debbie, in Nain we headed out Port Manvers Run, a great inside passage. Debbie was glued to the binoculars hoping to see at least one bear. Well we saw 5 black bears before lunch!
Our next bear encounter was at Perry’s Gulch. Debbie and I were washing our hair in the stream when Russ and Bee showed us all of the bear prints. They were everywhere once you started looking. All appeared to be black bears.
This is the only tundra dwelling population of black bears and they’re reportedly a little more carnivorous than their berry-eating kin to the south. We weren’t too anxious to run into one of them either.
No more sightings, black or white, until Hebron. (More on Hebron in a later post.) Our first Polar Bear and we had to give him a name! “Eddie” for Eddie Haskell on “Leave it to Beaver” walked into the caretaker’s camp. He and his kids were in their speedboat chasing Eddie when we saw him.
We saw the bear’s white head in the water and then his powerful body leapt onto land. Shots fired in the air and he loped up the hill. I admit I found it a little sad . . . this huge creature, the largest land carnivore in the world, in his natural element, being chased. But a bear that becomes a nuisance usually gets himself shot so, better to scare him away now.
Knowing we were definitely in polar bear country our eyes scanned every nook and cranny straining for the site of a white blob. The scale of everything here is so huge, we weren’t sure how big a blob we were looking for. Entering Ramah Fiord, we had our answer. This mother and little cub agilely jogged through boulders big and small.
Further in, these 3 napped on a headland.
They slept on, only waking as we got closer. Mom, massive paws hanging limply in the air, spread out with her back resting against this huge rock. Someone later told us that maybe they’d had a long swim and were in rest mode from that.
The 3 came down to the anchorage that night and strolled the beach.
The fast northern twilight descended and still we watched from the safety of Andante. Bee, aboard Hannah, thought she saw the Mom limping so we called them Gimpy and the twins. They slept all the next day in sight of us and repeated the nighttime stroll & swim routine.
Russ and I kayaked a bit in Ramah. “Oh look at the caribou up on the ridge,” I said. “Uh, I’m looking at the bear chasing the caribou,” Russ. Well gee! We dubbed this one The Lion King. His massive body loped up the ridge’s knife edge moving with the speed and agility of a mountain goat. He still couldn’t get the faster caribou.
I did not go kayaking again. Sorry no picture of that one. We were too busy paddling!
Next sightings were in Nachvak Fiord. Anchoring in Schooner Cove I saw a polar bear in the boulder strewn slope. We called him Fatso! I’m totally happy to see a fat bear.
Next day, Russ went kayaking while we did a bear watch from Andante. Coast looks clear . . . all clear. “OK, there’s a bear on the point,” said Debbie (very calmly I thought). Russ was paddling towards the opposite point. I stood on the bow waving my jacket trying to get his attention. We didn’t want to make a noise that would make the bear take off swimming towards him. But Russ didn’t see me and started paddling towards the bear’s point so we tooted our air horn to get his attention.
With Russ safely aboard we sat back and enjoyed Yogi Bear. His massive body cruised along under the surface with only the crown of his head showing at times. He seemed to be looking under water for something and either feeding on kelp or on mussels attached to the kelp. When he found something, he’d do a handstand much like a kid in a pool on a hot summer day with his huge rear paws sticking up out of the water. “Look Mom!” Yogi looked our way every so often keenly aware that we were there but totally unconcerned that’d we bother him. He was right.
Drift to the beach completed, he strolled out. Flying beads of water captured sunlight as his massive body shook off the water, just like our dog used to do. Yogi rolled in the grass stretching his massive limbs, flipping onto his back
South of Saglek we’d see a black bear in almost every anchorage. They’d come wandering down to the beach as if on their evening stroll.
We started calling Bee on Hannah the “bear whisperer”. Glued to binoculars, Hannah saw around 18 polar bears. 3 of them were swimming around their boat, usually around 4am ish. They were probably around us too we just didn’t get up! They saw 2 swimming about 3 miles off shore and the crowning glory was this guy in Mugford Tickle. Kipping (that’s Brit for napping) on a rock, they got closer and he woke up a tad grumpy. They backed off. (Thanks for sharing the photo Bee!)
In total we saw 10 polar bears and 18 black bears. Watching them from the boat was incredible. They were just going about their business, doing their thing. It felt like we were on safari. Definitely an adrenalin rush and a highlight of the trip
Parks Canada is reviewing their gun policy in parks where wildlife may pose a threat to humans. It would extend the carrying of weapons to scientists in remote areas and beyond just Inuit bear monitors. It still wouldn’t cover us if we were to go ashore. There’s not a marine component to the park so you can have a weapon on board, just not take it ashore. They're taking comments through the end of the year. Here's an article: Parks Canada to Permit Guns
If you’re shopping for bear deterrents, we were very happy with Margo Supplies. They’re a Canadian company that works with wildlife officials. The bear spray is considered a hazardous material and cannot be sent via air. There are also problems if you ship it from Canada to the States or try to bring in bear spray from the States. We had our order shipped to Baddeck Marine and they kindly held it for us.
In the end our biggest bear deterrent was not getting off the boat!
Will hopefully get some video uploaded when we have a faster connection!
2 comments:
this is just wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing it with all of us. I love reading your tales.
Thanks Doreen for following! See you soon.
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