Mary and I had booked a bear sightseeing trip
for today. We had chosen Tofino Outfitters because their advertisement looked
less sensationalised than Jamies tours (see their websites to assess the
different emphases). We couldn't have been happier. Our guide was Misty. I was
as much interested and entertained by her personal story as I was by the two
separate sightings of mother black bears with their cubs.
Firstly about Misty.
She told us how she grew up on an outer island
off Tofino. It's to the west, so it's exposed to the harsh weather and it is a
pretty inhospitable place in winter. Misty said she misses "a good
storm" and is disappointed when she's not on the island when one comes.
Her parents rescued the island from a logging plan in the 1970s by getting
together a collective and buying it from out under the noses of potential
developers who were going to clear fell it, sell the wood and make a golf
course resort there. Her parents have lived there since. It's still apparently
law that every Canadian may kill two black bears and three wolves a year (can
you believe that? and they expect people to come to appreciate these
magnificent creatures while they still allow this!). Misty's father decided
that to stop the hunters, he would start up a small business encouraging
visitors to watch the bears. They would position themselves where hunters were
heading. This discouraged them. It was initially a not for profit thing.. the
charge was $15 per head and that covered the fuel, but it became very successful.
Her father had another job and this was taking off so Misty who was then 12yo
and her sister started taking tourists. Ironic how many years later my first
thought when I saw her was "you're pretty young for this".. I guess
she's mid 20s now.
Misty and her family are caretakers on a privately owned island near Tofino. Misty proclaims "I love my
life". She loves her job because she lives and breathes the wonder of
nature and wildlife. She loves her friends, and harvesting a lot of her food
from the sea. Her kids are growing up in a pretty amazing environment, far
removed from the sort of things that give our family pleasure. Anyway she was
an ideal guide for us, and we felt very privileged. Lucky the rain had scared
away other tourists. We had the boat all to ourselves.
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| Ooops.. very overexposed. At least you can see Misty |
Now to the boat trip itself.. We started off at
a pretty slow pace while Misty oriented us to the surroundings. Then we
accelerated to get around a nearby island. As soon as we entered a wide bay
Misty had spotted our first bear.. a mother and three cubs, turning over rocks on
a nearby beach.
We slowly motored in and whispering, took several photos as
light misty rain fell. The mother was not disturbed by us, but she eventually
led her cubs into the forest, out of view.
We continued along this coastline
and not long afterwards we spotted another bear. This time a mother with 2 rambunctious cubs. While mum ate grass near the sealing, the youngsters
wandered around and then nimbly climbed a nearby tree. We had at least 5
minutes in silence, but watching in awe.
Our next stop was a very small island covered
in "sea sausages" (Misty's name for bloated seals lolling around on
the rock).
There were several eagles nearby, and some very small grebes which
were very deep divers (30m I think).
Misty told us about how her mother ended up
being given orphaned animals because their island had not many wolves, so often
they would rehabilitate deer. On one occasion they were given an orphaned seal
which they raised. This was a huge enterprise and they had to make a bigger and
bigger pool as she grew. Supplying enough fish was a problem when she was growing
and they had to teach her how to fish by supplying live fish. They had been
given fish by a local fish farm. This experience showed Misty that the farmed
fish probably weren't as nice to eat as wild fish.. Molly wouldn't touch them!
There are Atlantic salmon farms here, owned by
a Norwegian firm.
Apparently they have been kicked out of Norway and out of South America because of their environmental effect, but the current Canadian government is far from conservation minded and has allowed this industry. Apparently they were assured that the fish wouldn't escape, wouldn't survive in the wild and wouldn't spawn. All three have happened. These fish are different to the local species, so this is nothing short of an early environmental disaster and another reason why we shouldn't eat farmed fish.
Once back in Tofino, we had a delicious coffee at Breakers (good
Wifi too) and headed back to camp. I had a little photographic trip to the
private cove nearby
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| An amazing tree in our RV park |
and then we had dinner and watched a movie.. "Project Nim" about a chimpanzee raised in the 1970s as if it was human and
about the attempts to teach Nim to sign and make sentences. This
unintentionally reinforced the message of the day… don't disturb wild animals.
A sad sad movie.
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