The Sockeye salmon has many obstacles to endure in it's quest to return to the river of its birth to spawn, and then die. One of these hazards is bears, both Black bears, and Grizzleys. Fortunately, there are no Grizzleys in the area where we were viewing the spawning run, but there are a lot of the smaller Black bears. This bear was too fast for me, and by the time I got my camera out of the case and aimed, he had grabbed the salmon out of the water, come ashore, dropped the fish to get a better grip on it, then took off into the bush with his prize. I might have gotten my camera ready somewhat quicker, if I had not spent all my time watching the bear, as I was only 6-8 feet from it when I first noticed it, and likely, it saw me.. Bears can move amazingly fast, and so I was backing away all the while trying to get the camera out.

What I did get a picture of was the result of the bear capturing the fish. It is believed by some biologists, that in years of plenty, bears will target the female salmon because of the eggs. Here you can see where some of the eggs were squeezed out of the salmon when the bear put it's paw on the fish to keep it from flopping back into the water.

Had I not happened on the scene exactly when I did, I'm sure the bear would have taken a moment to lick up the spilled eggs. About an hour later, we returned to the area where we saw the bear, and the eggs were gone. They were likely picked up by the numerous seagulls, who gather every year in the hundreds of thousands, along with hawks and Bald Eagles to feed on the fish carcasses, which are the aftermath of each years spawning run.