One of the highlights of visiting southeast Alaska in the summer is the opportunity to see coastal brown bears as they are fishing in the salmon streams. Coastal brown bears, the same species as grizzlies, are separately designated because their plentiful food supply allows them to get much larger than typical inland grizzlies. It also affords wildlife lovers an opportunity to view them more closely than a grizzly as they tend to be focused on the task at hand- fishing for as much salmon as possible.
We saw bears three separate times on our trip. Our most incredible encounter came along a salmon stream on Chichagof Island. A total of 8 bears were fishing the stream while we were there. Our expedition leader emphasized the importance of staying together, moving as a group and making sure that we kept enough distance that the bears both knew where we were and we wouldn't change their behavior.
Among the bears was a mama with two cubs. She was an adept fisher and pulled salmon out of the stream efficiently, eating the eggs herself and then passing the remainder of the salmon on to her cubs.
We also saw a couple of hilarious juveniles, sisters that were about 3 years old, who were still learning. They spent more time playing on the streambank and splashing around than successfully catching fish. One of the girls in particular, seemed to watch longingly at the mama bear supplying her cubs perhaps wishing someone would do the work for her too.
In one exciting encounter, mama bear headed our direction with her cubs. We all scrambled further up the streambank and pressed out backs into the forest as she passed in front of us with her cubs.
