Polar Bear Frenzy

Well it has been an exciting few days! Turns out the first Polar Bear was shot on the ice outside the Bishop’s house. He and Karen were totally unaware and rather disappointed they had missed seeing the bear alive so close and about 6am.    

Thursday morning we heard at least one more polar bear had been seen and possibly shot. The story goes that a parishioner here had rung the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to report seeing the bear. When asked where the bear was now she replied 'In your car park!' So after lunch we headed out to the breakwater to see if we could see the second polar bear who had sauntered through town. We scanned the ice along with others, for about thirty minutes, but could see nothing. Wildlife officers turned up with guns, looking grumpy. But they obviously didn't know where exactly the bear was either. Then we headed round to the other side of the bay, passing on the way another couple of wildlife officers with guns. Unfortunately we had just missed seeing a pod of Beluga whales. However the Beluga Whale hunters that I chatted to assured me there would be plenty more over the next few weeks. They suggested we return for another look at 7pm for high tide. I did see some seals though. 

After tea we decided to head back over as the sun was shining. We saw one solitary seal. However we bumped into the Beluga hunters again who said the Belugas were at the headland along with more hunters. As I didn't really want to see whales being shot we headed home. However not before one of the hunters told me that when he visited Marineland, a marine zoo, at Niagara Falls he salivated at the site of the Belugas there!!!! The weather and scenery were beautiful though and we had a great day. Sadly not so the Polar bears. We are currently a bear free zone as the third one was apparently shot last night. And eaten. Raw.

The ice in the bay is slowly breaking up.

Looking from the causeway towards town - St Jude's Cathedral is in the centre. We are staying in the green building to the left of the Cathedral.