Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/109278
The icon al b.c. co tr ast cen Spirited Away START HERE Kermode bear tours with guide Marven Robinson: 778-884-2561 22 W estw o r ld p18-27_The List.indd 22 >> GRIBBELL ISLAND, CENTRAL B.C. COAST With just one day scheduled for bear watching, I���m bracing for the worst. After all, I���m not hoping to see just any bear, but a kermode. The rare albino black bear is found on only two islands in the world: Gribbell and the much larger Princess Royal Island alongside it, part of the 70,000-square-kilometre Great Bear Rainforest. Though this elusive creature has never been trapped or hunted, less than a thousand are known to exist. Spring 2013 Kermode watching is like hoping to spot a white needle in a black haystack twice the size of Belgium. From the luxury of the King Pacific Lodge it takes an hour for our fishing boat to navigate the choppy channel between Gribbell and Princess Royal. Marven Robinson, the spirit bear whisperer and the man who has spent more time with these bears than any other, greets us, then leads our group of five to his wooden viewing platform. Larger and better constructed than I had expected, it overlooks a stream bubbling with spawning salmon ��� salmon that draw bears. But Robinson still gives the disclaimer of wildlife guides everywhere: ���There���s no guarantee.��� And so we wait. Sun streaks through the forest canopy, a scene so picturesque it could be 1970s photo wallpaper. Out come the bugs, large mosquitoes with jackhammer drills, black flies whining for their piece of flesh. After two hours, sandwiches, cookies and sotto voce small talk laced with desperation, still no bears. Then: ���hush!��� A large black bear appears upstream ��� and before I can register disappointment, alongside it a white ghost. Three hundred pounds of cream shagcarpet fur that���s about six years old by Robinson���s reckoning. Ambling downriver, the spirit bear casually swipes salmon from rocky pools, picking the fish apart with sharp claws and a mouth punctuated by a toy-like pink nose. The kermode will consume as many as 80 fish by day���s end, a daily reality that makes it particularly susceptible to the plight of B.C.���s salmon stocks. Yet scientists now know that its white fur, which fish cannot perceive as easily as black, ensures it is 30 per cent more effective in its efforts than its indigo brethren. Suddenly the black bear charges, sending the kermode into a mossy bank. Unperturbed, it then re-enters the creek just a few metres downstream. I���m reminded of how First Nations have always protected the white behemoth they call Spirit Bear, never hunting it, believing that the animal invokes different but powerful reactions in all lucky enough to see one. Watching this magical creature, its droplet-covered fur glittering in the sunlight, I know they���re right. ��� ���Robin Esrock (kermode) ACP, (salmon) Thomas C. Kline, Jr./ACP, (snorkellers) Robin Esrock 13-01-28 10:30 AM