Newfoundland man went looking for seals at sea, found polar bear instead

A seal harvester on the hunt came across a much bigger animal on his way out to sea over the weekend: a polar bear.

"We had an encounter with the bear there about a mile, mile and a half from Harry's Harbour," KerryNoble told CBC's On The Go.

"I'd say he was coming ashore for a rest."

Noble said he's been sealing off Newfoundland's northern coastsfor nearly a decade, but had never come across a polar bear much less one so far from land or ice.

The nearest floes, he said, were probably about 40 kilometres away.

"It was the first one I'd ever seen it was a great experience. We got up [close] just to get a picture, and [then]we left him alone."

Noble said he pulled up to within fivemetres of the bear, who clearly wanted to keep its distance from Noble's boat.

As he got closer, Noble said, "he turned his direction" and started paddling toward another distant small town instead.

The seafaring bear is more than just a curiosity: in 2016, a group of scientists tracked dozens of polar bears in the Canadian Arctic to see whether climate change forced bears into open water.

The researchers found that in a part of Arctic with less sea ice, most of the 76 tracked bears made at least one 50-kilometre swim and they'd do it without stopping, sometimes for days on end.

The study's authors said then that polar bears are making the long treks because ice floes, which provide key hunting grounds for the animals, are shrinking.

Noble himself expressed confidence at the bear's abilities.

"There's people thinks he can drown, but he won't drown," he said.

"He was on his way north."

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