A trip to the North Shore of Alaska takes close to the ends of the earth. The month is October and the weather is cold and only getting colder. The bays are starting to ice over and the Polar bears are waiting for the Beaufort Sea to do the same. I arrive at Barter Island which is also the home to Kaktovik, which is a small Inupiat eskimo settlement.
Kaktovik is within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge against the Beaufort Sea. Prior to COVID a small number of permits were issued yearly to small six-pack boat operators.
These boats can traverse the local bays and sand bars and get you up close and almost eye level with a lot of polar bears. One one day I saw over 25 different animals. Another day the wind was blowing very hard and there was a small dusting of snow, but both the polar bears and people were looking for shelter. The funny thing is near the end of the day with the sun low in the sky, there was a reprieve in the weather and I got some of my best shots.
Most mothers had two cubs in tow. The cubs were about 10 months old and growing fast. They were balls of fur and fun.
While these bears are usually loners out on the ice (except mom's and cubs) The bears congregate is this area waiting for the sea ice to form. The local native Inupiat population is permitted to kill three bowhead whales a year, and flenses the bodies of the whales into muktuk. They leave the carcasses on the beach at the edge of town attracting the bears before the ice has formed.
The bears of all ages banter around as the gather together. You can see groups of several bears together. There are a lot of fights occurring but most are just play or perhaps slowing forming a hierarchy and preparing for the time when mating rights due come into play and the fighting could leave injuries.
The bears are great swimmers and so they inhabit most of the islands and inlets
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