The secrets and wonders of the Great Bear Rainforest

Along B.C.’s central and north coast is a stretch of land, islands and fjords that National Geographic magazine recently called ‘the Wildest Place in North America’. It is the Great Bear Rainforest.

The largest temperate rainforest in the world and, more famously, home of the Spirit Bear.

Recently, Global BC reporter Linda Aylesworth and cameraman Mike Timbrell spent eight days exploring the area aboard Bluewater Adventures 68-foot sailboat, the Island Roamer.

Onboard – ecotourists from around the globe and from our own backyard – eager to see what only a few hundred people get the chance to experience each year.

Humpback whales, once driven to near extinction by whalers in these very waters, are at last returning. As are Fin Whales – the second-largest creatures on earth.

In the wildflower-filled estuaries Grizzly bears play with their cubs; black bears teach their clumsy adorable cubs how to fish in the rainforests many salmon streams.

But what anyone who makes the journey to this part of the world wants to see most of all is the iconic Spirit Bear. B.C.’s official mammal and emblem of the 2010 Olympic Games. Their fur is white due to a recessive gene carried by many-of-the-regions’ black Kermode bears. No one knows for certain how many exist. But they are rare enough that seeing one can not be guaranteed.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Luck, however, was on our side.

In a river shared with many of its black cousins Linda and Mike watched an enormous male Spirit Bear come and go several times. Totally at ease with our presence – it was as if he was posing for us.

A remarkable experience in a remarkable place.

A place that is increasingly in the headlines. Not because of its beauty and uniqueness as much as because of the threats that it is facing.

A proposed super tanker route that would see 220 enormous crude-carrying vessels ply these waters every year has First Nations communities and environmental organizations springing into action. There is also concern and growing controversy over open-net salmon farms in the area.

And the trophy hunt – which recently began – means it is open season on the Grizzly bears – as well as the black bears that carry the recessive gene that gives rise to Spirit Bears.

Beginning Monday September 19 a four-part series on Global BC’s 6 p.m. News Hour will take you on a journey of the area, its animals, its creatures, its people – as well as give both voice to both sides of the controversial issues that many fear could tarnish – even destroy this remote and remarkable place. 

Extended footage:

 Part One:

 Part Two:

 Part Three:

 Part Four:

For more information: 

http://www.spiritbearyouth.org

http://pacificwild.org

http://www.raincoast.org

http://www.northerngateway.ca

http://www.kitasoo.org/fisheries/index-fisheries.html  

http://www.savethegreatbear.org/