AUDIO: BEAR EATS KAYAK
Mary Maley was on a solo sea kayaking trip from Ketchikan to Petersburg in Alaska. During a stopover in Berg Bay, she found a bear nosing around her kayak. She screamed at the bear, and then, as the bear approached her, she sprayed bear repellent. The bear went back to the kayak and started chewing. Maley became hysterical. And she recorded the whole thing on her cell phone. “No, get away from the kayak,” she implored. “Get away from that kayak. Come here. Come on. Stop it, bear. Stop it! Bear! Bear! Bear, you’re breaking it, you’re breaking my kayak. Why are you doing that? Why are you breaking my kayak? It’s not even food. It doesn’t even taste good. It’s just plastic. Bear please stop. Bear please stop.” The bear kept gnawing on the sea kayak for another 10 minutes or so, after which it finally wandered off. Maley, worried she would become stranded, swam out to a sailing vessel anchored in the bay and contacted a German ship from a radio aboard the sailing vessel. That ship came to her rescue, picking her up and transporting her to Wrangell, where she is trying to repair her kayak.
* (As Homer Simpson): “Mmmmm. Kayak.”
* If only she hadn’t been using one of those new salmon-flavored kayaks.
* Of all the things that could go wrong on a “solo sea kayaking trip in Alaska,” I did not see this coming.
* Springing a leak, being flipped over by a wave, rammed by a whale, suffering from exposure, sure. Bear eating your plastic boat? Weird.
* Just lucky I guess.
* The bear was just sending a message to kayak enthusiasts everywhere.
* Nice try reasoning with it. That always works.
* Bears are smart. It knew if it destroyed the boat, it wouldn’t be long before the human was in play.
* The category: Things that don’t happen when you’re sitting at home on the sofa.
* She’s just lucky the local wolf pack didn’t hear her.
(video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2&v=nU5cMZymSr0)
CLIP: Mary Maley yells at the bear (edited down from the long video.)
