Collapsing salmon stocks, climate change driven record droughts, cedar tree die-offs, dwindling orca populations, emaciated bears in estuaries, tankers plowing through whales…all on our temperate rainforested west coast?! I must say I was less than optimistic about our upcoming photographic opportunities as I flew to Bella Bella to join the Passing Cloud and her crew for the annual fall Outer Shores Great Bear Rainforest Photo tour. Would there be any fish? Bears? Whales? On the plus side though, we had had a very “normal” feeling amount of rain through August and September, and word from preceding tours was that the salmon run was robust.
As we sailed north out of Bella Bella and into the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, we noticed the same orange branches on the massive shoreline cedar trees that are appearing further south; signs of heat stress and possibly dying trees. We very soon ran across our first humpback whale however, along with two sea otters. Things were looking up! As the tour progressed under both pounding rain and brilliant sunshine, each day treated us to wildlife spectacles of behaviour and abundance never before seen on previous trips. Hunting orca tossing a sea lion through the air, 30-50 feeding humpbacks in one small area, multiple families of bears with cubs in estuaries where in the past we’d been lucky to see even a single bear. To cap it all off we were treated to some wonderful weather, revealing the first snows of the season beginning to accumulate on the mountain tops and ridges. In a word: wow!
This year was the Great Bear as it should be – packed with life driven by the annual return of millions of salmon drawn to the scent of their home rivers propelled into the ocean by robust fall rains. The contrast to previous drought affected years was stark and highlights the urgent need for us to try to forestall the worst of the current climate emergency. It’s easy to be complacent in an area that is predicted to be one of the least impacted by the current climate trends, but seeing the rainforest and ocean cascading back to life after some good rains left me elated and galvanized to contribute in any way I can.
