Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Herring Eggs & Brown Bears


Life in Sitka is returning to normal, well as normal as it can be with Phineas. One of the things that is "normal" this time of year in Sitka is collecting from the beach herring eggs on seaweed.  The eggs and seaweed are full of nutrients which Sitkans use to fertilize garden soil.  Since we are trying to get our garden going we went to the beach next to the Starigavan boat launch with a bunch of buckets to do some collecting.  We kept Phineas close by as he sleept in his car seat "bucket" on top of another bucket.  We finished around 8:00 P.M.
Val collecting herring eggs on seaweed.

Brown bears are another normal thing in Sitka.  The police blotter in tonight's Sitka newspaper says:

"At 9:11 P.M.  a resident reported a bear sow and two cubs in a yard in the 5300 block of Halibut Point Road.  Later the bears were reported near the Starigavan boat launch."

Looks like last night we missed seeing our first bears of 2010 by an hour or two.  I have mixed feelings about this.  Part of me sees that it is risky to take our new son anywhere bears may be wandering around.  However, living involves some risk-right?  I compare risk of being mauled or eaten by brown bears on the beach  to the everyday risks others take such as being crushed in a car accident on a freeway.  I haven't crunched the numbers but I am pretty confident that beaches (even beaches with bears) are safer than highways.  A big part of me wishes that we could have seen the bears last night.  To better our odds though next time we will bring bear spray. 

1 comment:

  1. Any more bear sightings lately? Just wondering.

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