20060629 Just Like That

Just like that the salmon are running and bears and people are all around. This is what we have trained for and we are all glad it has finally come. We can see schools of hundreds of sockeye salmon, also known as red salmon, in the Brooks River and we are told hundreds of thousands have been seen downstream in the Naknek River about 30 miles away.

Yesterday morning and this evening I took a few photos at the falls. Tonight I counted 8 or 9 different bears if cubs are ignored. Two yearling cubs watched from the shore as mama fished and two spring cubs dangled from a dead spruce.

Fishing techniques and success rates varied. A couple of smaller bears, I believe the same bears I watched play in the water yesterday, thrashed around below the 5-foot falls near the platform, lunging and circling without much success. After moving to the lip of the falls, each bear caught a fish after a few minutes effort. These smaller bears immediately ran into the woods with their prizes to avoid being robbed at toothpoint by a larger bear.

At a different spot further across the river and just below the falls, one of those larger bears, presumed male, never moved from his spot and caught fish after fish at will. He ate each fish without taking a step, confident that none of the other bears in the area posed a threat. As soon as he finished eating one fish he caught another, just like that.