An emaciated grizzly was found dead yesterday on the B.C. Central Coast yesterday, sparking concern over the rest of bear population and its food supply.

The bear was found at Smith Inlet, about 60 kilometres north of Port Hardy in the traditional territory of the Gwa鈥檚ala-鈥楴akwaxda鈥檟w First Nation, by a Gwa鈥檚ala-鈥楴akwaxda鈥檟w team on a river patrol near Nekite River estuary.

鈥淭he poor bear starved to death,鈥� said John Smith, a fisheries supervisor with the band and the one who found the dead grizzly. Smith said there are very few fish in the river right now, adding he saw five other bears who seemed 鈥渢hinner than normal鈥� but not as bad as the dead one.

鈥業鈥檝e never seen anything like this before,鈥� said Patricia Sewid, a Gwa鈥檚ala-鈥楴akwaxda鈥檟w fisheries officer.

While Sewid returned to Port Hardy last week she said that she had counted the lowest salmon numbers of her career.

鈥淓ight days ago I counted just over 300 pinks, ideally I should have counted over 10,000,鈥� said Sewid.

The low number of salmon is not helping the bears, she said and added that this year she observed a low count of berries too鈥� another food source.

The Smith Inlet team is used to observing grizzlies on a regular basis in their territory. When the grizzlies come out of hibernation from April to May, they are usually skinny and they gain weight in a couple of weeks, said Sewid. But seeing an emaciated grizzly in September is alarming.

Tom Rivest, a guide and co-owner of the Great Bear Lodge, who is familiar with the grizzly population in these areas has said that it is difficult to conclude anything definitively without a necropsy, as the bear could also have some underlying condition which prevented it from feeding.

But he also said that the salmon numbers are very low and berry crops were patchy this year. Some of the bears he observed seemed to be in good shape while many are just 鈥済etting by.鈥�

鈥淭he challenge is, we only see a few percent of the habitat the bears use, so a lot of our observations allow only limited conclusions,鈥� said Rivest.

This is not the first time the image of an emaciated grizzly has caused concern for a First Nation. Last year, Broughton鈥檚 grizzlies received global attention after a photographer shared images of emaciated grizzlies from the traditional territory of the Mamalilikulla First Nation.

Since there was hardly any salmon in Hoeya Sound and Lull Bay, the First Nation took matters into its own hands and fed more than 500 salmon carcasses they ordered from a hatchery to the bears鈥� an act that got the First Nation in a tight spot with conservation officers and the Forest Ministry.

Jake Smith the Mamalilikulla guardian watchman program manager told Black Press Media that this year too they have a grizzly in Lull Bay that 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 look too good.鈥�

Jake received the images of the emaciated grizzly from Smith Inlet from a fellow guardian watchmen yesterday. 鈥淭here was nothing worse than seeing that picture,鈥� said Jake.

He also said that he has been receiving images of emaciated grizzlies from across the province this year. A couple of months ago, he received an image of an emaciated grizzly from Little Nemo Bay.

鈥淔irst Nations are slowly losing our resources like salmon, which has a huge domino effect of our wildlife. If we have no salmon, then we have no bears, eagles, whales, no tourism industry etc,鈥� said Jake.

He also said that the guardian watchmen have communicated some of these concerns along with other issues they鈥檝e come across while patrolling through their traditional territories to the authorities but there has neither been any response nor collaborative efforts.

鈥淚t seems like the authorities don鈥檛 want to do anything about it,鈥� said Jake and added, 鈥渢hey鈥檒l slap your hands and say 鈥榯hat鈥檚 not right鈥� when you take matters into your own hand or say that these deaths are just 鈥榥atural鈥�.鈥�

He said that grizzlies starving and dying indicated a serious problem and studies need to be undertaken to see what the real problem is.

鈥淲hen a grizzly dies of starvation it鈥檚 not natural, it鈥檚 a man made disaster,鈥� said Jake and added that conservation officers and DFO need to buckle up and find out what is going on.

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