In Search of SPIRIT BEARS

Photographer Bruce Raby of Perth, Ont., shows us the wonder and magic of the Great Bear Rainforest

I hope my grandchildren and their grandchildren will be able to see B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest (GBRF) as I have seen it. This thought kept running through my mind as our boat approached the dock at Bella Bella in October, 2016, ending my first visit to the GBRF. I had just finished nine glorious days aboard Bluewater Adventures’ Island Roamer, a 68-foot sailboat carrying 12 passengers and a crew of four.

The GBRF is an area of 12,000 square miles that stretches along the central coast of British Columbia as far north as the Alaska border. It is the largest temperate rainforest in the world. Largely uninhabited, it is still possible to sail for hours without seeing any obvious signs of human presence.

The GBRF is home to the 1,000-year old western red cedar and 300-foot Sitka spruce, as well as more than 1,800 salmon streams and rivers and amazingly abundant flora and fauna. Humpback and fin whales and orcas visit its waters along with Steller sea lions, harbour seals and five species of Pacific salmon. Bald eagles cruise the towering cli’s that line the shorelines and islands that make up the GBRF. It is also home to the rare kermode bear and even rarer spirit bear. The kermode bear is a subspecies of the American black bear. Its range is more or less limited to the area of the GBRF, so it is uniquely Canadian.