A traveling NHL mascot got the full Alaskan fishing experience last week while filming a promotional video in Katmai National Park. The resulting viral video clip shows “Buoy,” the mascot for the Seattle Kraken, getting bluff-charged by a bear and chased off a salmon-filled stream. In addition to entertainment value, the clip provides a fundamental lesson about Alaska’s brown bears: big furry things tend to draw the attention of other big furry things.
At least that was the takeaway for John Hayden, who plays forward for the Kraken and was fishing near Buoy when the bear charged them on June 25.
“I want to blame Buoy,” Hayden says in an Instagram post. “They were pretty interested in his whole look.”
Hayden, the mascot, and other representatives from the pro hockey team were in Alaska that week for a promotional event with the Alaska Native Corporation, according to KOMO News. The group had flown into Katmai National Park to fly fish the Brooks River near Brooks Falls, which is one of the most well-known and publicized bear-viewing spots in Alaska, if not the world. The short stretch of river is managed by the National Park Service, and it hosts an incredible sockeye run that brings in hordes of brown bears from the surrounding area. At least 40 and up to 100 bears follow the salmon here each summer, according to the NPS, which maintains a bear cam at Brooks Falls.
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In the edited video, Hayden is hooked up to a fish when the bear starts moving in on them from across the shallow stream. They appear to be fishing just a short distance below the actual falls, where bears like to congregate. Hayden’s guide quickly grabs his rod to break the fish off, which is common practice when you’re hooking and jumping salmon around a bunch of hungry fish-eaters.
At first, the bear seems more interested in the sockeye below the surface than Hayden and the other humans. Then it clocks Buoy, the wader-clad mascot, which is supposed to be a sea troll but looks sort of like a cross between a pirate and a polar bear. And from where the bear is standing, the furry, blue-haired being is clearly treading on its turf. So it bluff charges the mascot.
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The half-hearted charge only lasts a few seconds, but it’s enough to put some pep in Buoy’s step as he turns tail away from the bear, looking back as he retreats. The crew doesn’t run away — this would have been a very bad idea — and they at least appear to stay calm while backing out of the run. (Which is what the NPS recommends in this situation.) Unfortunately, Buoy, the slowest one in the group, was not mic’d at the time.
“We got out of it okay,” Hayden says, “but it was a close call.”
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