Alaska Beat: Meet the new Fat Bear Week king, and more!

ALASKA BEAT

A Katmai National Park grizzly named 480 Otis took the

Fat Bear Week title for 2021. (L. LAW/KATMAI NATIONAL PARK)

POUND FOR POUND FOR POUND: OTIS RULES FAT BEAR WEEK

Another year of Katmai National Park salmon binge eating means the grizzlies there will have packed on plenty of extra pounds for winter. The king of those impressive ursine specimens? A big boy named 480 Otis, who captured the hearts of voters in the college basketball tournament-style contest known as Fat Bear Week.

Otis pushed his weight around early in the contest when he was voted through to the next round matched up with the defending biggest and baddest bear, 2020 champ 747. He then took down another hefty challenger, 812, in the semifinals before matching up with a behemoth named 151 Walker in the final.

Otis carried his weight against Walker, scoring 51,230 votes to 44,834 to take the title as the king of calorie intake. Until next year, Katmai bruins. Bon appétit.

TWEET OF THE MONTH

Today would have been my Dad’s 93rd birthday. Too many memories to share. Our trip to Alaska was a gift like no other. Dr. Ernest Hamilton touched countless lives as a professor. That fishing hat still resides with me where I can see it and remember all his life lessons and love!

-@ScottHamilton84

Oct. 7 Editor’s note: Scott Hamilton won the gold medal in men’s figure skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

NOTABLE NUMBER 88

According to The Seattle Times, Alaska’s 2021-22 snow crab catch limit of 5.6 million pounds as of Oct. 8 was down 88 percent from the previous season’s total.

“QUOTABLE ” “Clem Tillion belongs to history now. Almost 100 years of his own history and a lot of great contributions to the state of Alaska. He was an outstanding person and a great teacher.” –Rick Halford, former Alaska state senator, to Alaska Public Media discussing the life of Tillion, who passed away at 96 on Oct. 13 after serving 20 years in the state legislature and was known as a “fish czar” for his longtime work as a fisheries lobbyist.

In 2020, actor Mark Harmon graced the cover of our July issue after he participated in the documentary The Wild, which focuses on the Bristol Bay community’s fight to block the Pebble Mine. Harmon joined director Mark Titus on a Nushagak River fishing trip during their collaboration.

In October, Harmon’s hit CBS crime drama show, NCIS, hit the road to film an episode in the Bristol Bay area. It was set in fictional Naktok Bay, which was part of a plot line that included, naturally, a shady company attempting to build a copper mine around the region’s salmon-filled waters.

Titus played a part in the episode as a consulting producer in Alaska, and Harmon’s NCIS special agent character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, donned a Titus Bait and Tackle cap throughout the show. (And there was one final plot twist, as after the case is resolved Gibbs decides to stay in Alaska – presumably to spend a lot of time fishing – leading conspiracy theorists to speculate if his long run starring on TV’s longstanding No. 1 drama – Harmon is also an executive producer for the NCIS franchise – will end.)

For an actor who clearly endeared himself to the Bristol Bay cause after appearing in The Wild, Alaska has become a special place for Harmon, just as it did for his character.

At one point, Gibbs and another agent cruise through schools of salmon in a small boat.

“Take a good look around, McGee,” Harmon’s Gibbs tells his partner, actor Sean Murray, after hearing about the potential environmental damage done by the mining project. “This will all be gone soon.”

“Which part?”

“All of it.”

Trevor Embry’s first-ever full-curl Dall sheep ram was a special moment. (TREVOR EMBRY)

FROM THE ASJ ARCHIVES – NOVEMBER 2019 A HUNTER’S REDEMPTION RAM

After literally days of watching them, none of those eight rams fit my expectations. I retired to camp and decided at first light I’d move on to greener pastures.

Fast forward to 3 a.m. and I woke up to a torrential downpour and shifting winds that made me quickly gather my belongings and break camp in the dark.

I was out of water and the descent out of the drain was too dangerous to attempt in the dark. So I instead climbed up to a glacial seep to drink water and wait for first light.

The rain broke right as the sun began to lighten the field of view just enough for glassing. I decided to look over the rams one last time while having breakfast before moving on. I finished my meal, bid the rams farewell and strapped on my pack.

Finally, the sheep hunting gods smiled on me for making the right decision. I noticed a lone ram coming around the peak of a mountain some 2 miles off in my direction. I broke out the spotting scope, and realized he was definitely worth a closer look.

I avoided the temptation to move in closer for an ambush, nervous that the other rams would almost certainly bust me and alert their incoming friend. I instead stayed in the cliffs and watched for two hours as this ram fed his way up the drain and made a direct line for me.

As he got to 300 yards I had made up my mind: I was looking at my first ram. I traded the spotting scope for a riflescope and followed him along the shale path he took up towards the cliffs I was hiding in.

He paused at 150 yards and a moment later he was mine. I dropped down to size him up, nervously covering the 150 yards as quickly as I could without losing footing. I’m fairly certain I went a solid two minutes without breathing until I could confirm what I already knew.

I had killed my first full-curl ram. -Trevor Embry