Great Bear Rainforest Read Free Page A

most of the year.
    I see a little center consol boat speeding toward us from across the inlet. I’m guessing this is our ride.
    More later …
WYATT
    4:32 PM
BELLA BELLA, B.C.
14° CELSIUS, 57° FAHRENHEIT
CLOUDY SKIES, WIND 10-15 MPH
    As we raced toward the bay in the water taxi, a mist blew through the air and I could taste the ocean on my lips. Rounding a small island, the ship came into view. The Pacific Yellowfin, our home for the next ten days!
    Captain Colin and the crew were gathered on the starboard bow, awaiting our arrival.
    “Welcome, explorers!” Captain Colin hollered as we neared the ship. “Climb aboard! The Great Bear awaits!”

    The Pacific Yellowfin awaiting our arrival
    Wearing a pressed black oxford shirt with captain stripes proudly displayed over his broad shoulders, Captain Colin O’Brien is a respectable figure. First off, he’s tall, about six feet, two inches, with red hair and fair, freckled skin. Second, he has this thunderous voice that makes him sound very confident in all that he says. Third, he’s worked on boats longer than I’ve been alive. In over a quarter century as a ship captain, he has navigated almost every ocean on the planet. It’s the northwest coast of British Columbia, however, that he decided to make his home. This is a place, he said, that captures his imagination more than any other.
    In addition to Captain Colin are two other men with over fifty years of experience between them. “Salty” Joe Bollock, first mate and cook, and Liam Glasgow, chief engineer and self-proclaimed “man who can fix anything, anytime, anywhere.”
    Salty Joe has the look of a hardened seaman with a prickly white crew cut and weathered skin. Short and stocky, his eyes are narrow slits, his face has deep lines, and he speaks out of the left side of his mouth. Basically, he looks like an old pirate. Joe took his first job aboard a crab boat at the age of fifteen, thirty-seven years ago, and has had no desire to return to a “life on land” since.
    Liam, on the other hand, looks nothing like a pirate. He has blond hair and fair skin and was brought up in a small town in the San Juan Islands. After graduating from the University of British Columbia, he went in search of adventure and found it working aboard a cargo ship that transported goods to Asia. After that, he spent seven years as a sailing instructor, guiding trips throughout the South Pacific and Australia on a 42-foot Whitby center cockpit. Now, he’s enjoying his favorite job of all, as a crewmember on the Pacific Yellowfin.
    We are definitely in good hands.
    Just as we finished bringing our luggage aboard, the Dr. Hans Brezner descended the steps from the captain’s bridge.
    “Welcome aboard,” he said, as he hopped off the last step to greet us.
    Dr. Brezner is tall and slightly thinner than I had expected. But he certainly looks the part of a renowned scientist, with multiple pens clipped inside his breast pocket, a journal in his left hand, and a set of round spectacles resting halfway down his nose. His hair has grayed since I’d last seen a photo of him on the cover of Earth Science magazine a few years ago.
    Captain Colin introduced everyone.
    “Which of you boys is the scientist-in-training?” he asked.
    “That would be my nerdy brother,” Gannon said quietly to himself, but loud enough for me to hear.
    I gave him a shot to the ribs with my elbow and stepped forward.
    “That’s me,” I said, proudly.
    Dr. Brezner reached out and shook my hand firmly.
    “Pleasure to meet you,” he said.
    “It’s a real honor,” I said.
    “So, Doctor,” the captain said, “do you think you’ll be able to teach this young lad a thing or two?”
    The doctor replied, “I suppose I’ve acquired some wisdom over the years that might prove useful to a young man with an interest in the environment.”
    “That would be great,” I said, almost at a loss for words.
    “Now, if you will all follow me,” the captain said,