FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Trooper Kills Charging Bear at Starrigavan
By Sentinel Staff
A young bear that has been roaming the Starrigavan River estuary and campground in recent days was shot and killed Sunday afternoon when it charged an Alaska Wildlife Trooper, Fish and Game said today.
The trooper, along with a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer and a Fish and Game department biologist, had gone to the area in response to a call that the bear was on the boardwalk. Authorities had hoped to haze it back into the woods, officials said.
F&G Wildlife Biologist Phil Mooney said that in the last three days the bear had grown “more visibly irritated at people encroaching on its space while they tried to get photos of the bear.”
He said the bear recently found a bucket of discarded fast food wrappers and empty coffee, milkshake and sports drink containers, and refused to back away from campers and hikers in area, Mooney said.
Hundreds of people had gone out to see the bear in recent weeks, Mooney said.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “a number of people chose to get very close to the bear while it fed on grass, even after it ‘huffed’ at them – a warning (bears make) to make people back away.”
Police got a call Friday evening from someone worried that people trying to take pictures were getting too close to the bear.
The yearling female bear appeared in the estuary earlier this month. Mooney said he had wondered where the mother was, since the sow usually isn’t far away from yearlings like this one.
“The Forest Service campground host repeatedly asked people to let the bear feed undisturbed and not use the boardwalk to get closer to it,” Mooney said. Sitka police officers also issued a statement urging people “to give the bear space.”
“Unfortunately, the outcome for young bears and females with cubs ending up in the estuary has been very dismal over the years,” Mooney said. “While the Starrigavan estuary and adjacent campground is a favorite local camping and picnicking spot, bears do not survive long in this area ... the bears are just too visible, easily approached by people from different directions, and the bears’ escape routes are limited.”
Mooney said records of bears captured and radio-collared at Starrigavan show that none has survived the season. This bear was too small to collar and there was no place to move it to, he said.
“It simply doesn’t have a different area to go to on its own where it will survive,” said Mooney.
When the 150-pound bear charged and came within 10 feet of the trooper Sunday, the trooper had no other option than to shoot it, Mooney said.
“Without taking that shot, the bear would have made physical contact with the trooper and things would have gone from bad to ugly,” he said. “We were just minutes away from having hazing equipment on hand to discourage the bear from approaching people, when the bear suddenly charged.”
While the outcome was not what he or the officers had anticipated, Mooney said he is glad no on was hurt. Mooney recommended if another bear viewing opportunity arises at Starrigavan: “View bears from a safe distance and do not interrupt their feeding behavior or movements.”
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....
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