trait appears as a recessive gene, the bear
has a white coat. Coastal First Nations
Peoples have known of the presence of a
white bear in coastal B.C. for many gen-
erations. When snow and ice covered the
world, legend has it that Raven, creator of
the world, chose to make the land lush and
green. Raven then turned every tenth black
bear white so people would remember the
time of ice and snow. In the Tsimshian-
ic languages, the name for this animal is
moksgm’ol, meaning white bear. Today, a
white-coated kermode bear is known as a
spirit bear.
The current estimate of kermode bear
numbers is around 1,200 with spirit bear
numbers totalling perhaps 175 to 400. But
no one knows for sure exactly how many
exist. It is known that the greatest concen-tration of spirit bears occurs on Gribbell
and Princess Royal islands in the GBRF. It
was the chance to photograph a spirit bear
that brought me to the GBRF. The chances
of seeing a spirit bear are much improved
in the fall season during the salmon runs.
Bears, both black and grizzly, congregate
along the salmon streams in the GBRF for
their annual salmon feast.MAGICAL MOMENTS
For the average traveller like me, there are
only two ways to experience the GBRF and
search for the rare and elusive spirit bear.
One is though a small number of cruise-
based adventure companies. The other is
through the land-based Spirit Bear Lodge
in Klemtu. In 2016, I deliberately chose a
Bluewater Adventures trip that included10 More of Our Canada SEPTEMBER 2019