Big oil and the future of the Great Bear Rainforest.

CANADA | Monday, 14 January 2013 | Views [931] | View Smaller Image

The British Columbia coastline is etched with steep, narrow fjords that rise straight up from the ocean to dizzying heights. These narrow passageways may be beautiful, but the tight spaces and treacherous currents they create are also a hazard to marine navigation. In 2006, the Queen of the North ferry struck an island and sank. Now, a proposal to ship oil in supertankers through this wild region has sparked fears of an oil spill.

In the heart of British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest, a young female grizzly bear explores a fallen log. The Great Bear is the largest piece of coastal temperate rainforest left on Earth. While grizzlies have been eradicated from most of their former range in North America, this region is one of their remaining strongholds. With an abundance of food, grizzlies in this region are larger and live in much higher densities than in other regions.

< previous

2 of 5

After avoiding hungry predators like seals, wolves and bears on their upstream migration to spawn and die, the carcasses of chum salmon are swept downstream and pile up on a boulder. Bears and scavengers spread salmon carcasses into the surrounding forest, where the nutrients from their decaying bodies will fertilize the trees. Meanwhile the forest regulates the waters that rear the next generation of salmon. Ocean and forest are not distinct entities here - they nourish each other in a continuum.

next >

Return to photo gallery >>

Big oil and the future of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Share