Ratdog68
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Last Wednesday was a BIG day for us at work. We had a "Mutual Aid Drill" where I work. Meaning... the oil company sponsored and paid for various governmental agencies to come and play out a laundry list of scenarios/disasters. And, it wasn't JUST for THEM to come play... the company was being graded on their response efforts to deal with problems. Basically, it went something like this... the sub-sea pipe bundle burst and started bubbling up crude, and animals were getting oil on them... how would we cope with it to mitigate and respond? We had Coast Guard, EPA, USF&W, AK F&G, AK DEC... in all, about 80 "guests" to come play.
So... there I am, going about my normal routine, when I hear "This is a drill... a sow/cub polar bear have been spotted on our island, covered in oil". Of course... I haven't been told ANYTHING, including "what" I was looking for... plywood cutouts, etc. I see a bundle of white on the beach, next to our WEST boat ramp, but, want to rule out anything else that may be simulating a pair of oiled bears. Besides... this bundle is right where the boat crews will be deploying containment boom, so it may be part of their gear stash. I'll complete my loop of the island, and investigate this further in a couple of minutes.
Rounding a corner of the island, one of the truck drivers is waving his radio at me and frantically pointing to the EAST boat ramp area. Aha !!! My hunch was right, my simulated bears are on THIS side... WTF?!?!?! Nope, I've got the REAL thing in the water right in front of me !!!! 50 feet from shore and putting the CREEP on us !! Now, mind you, this water is only 3 feet deep, and the ONLY things I'm seeing on this bear are his ears/eyes/nose and the top of his snout and forehead !!! And, he's fixing to come ashore right before my very eyeballs ! Well... as it turns out, a loader operator was on the radio screaming for the desk to have me respond, the desk guy was making his list of "who to call on the phone" things happen for the simulation, and realizes there's more than the simulation going on. So, he's hanging up the phone and reaching for the radio when I call in to confirm what's unfolding. LOL I brought the rig I drive onto the boat ramp (facing the bear), and the loader operators (both are CAT 966H) follow me and position on each flank of my rig and drop their bucket/forks. That much mechanical presence was enough to intimidate the bear and he changed course at the last second and headed for the barrier island (150yds away).
Once he was away from the boat ramp, I drove to the NE corner of the island and bail out of my rig with shotgun slung and head to a spot where I can watch him to verify he's not coming ashore just away from the boat ramp. I'm pulling slugs from the saddle and ready to chamber when I see he's still swimming away and to the barrier island. Well... he reached that shore and as he emerged from the water, he just kept emerging, and emerging... OMG... BIG bear !!!
Needless to say, the drill got put on hold while all this was going on, and I kept him in sight until he'd walked the full length of the barrier island and gotten into the water to swim to the next island over. It's pretty cool to see them disappear, then see their entire body as they're riding a breaker and rise up.... vanish again... until they're far enough from shore to have no wave action like that to showcase them.
Otay... paperwork for the REAL thing done, and it's back to the simulated thing. Yup, the initial blobs were my simulated bears, and the game played out, notifications were made, played taxi service for the Federal Fish and Wildlife folks there to do the simulated tranquilizing of the pair... got the on-site equipment over to help load 'em into the boat, and my part of the drill was done.
Me thinks the Good Lord was helpful in causing me to do what I did... had I gotten out of the rig to verify the blobs... I'd've missed this bear coming ashore, and who knows WHAT havoc he'd've wreaked. He was putting the CREEP on and wanted a Happy Meal (worker).
Hey, at least I got a free Solar battery charger out of the deal. LOL
Oh, yeah... I show my pix of the "hybrid" (I'd seen a few days before), and she's trying to tell me it was just a dirty bear that'd been rolling around. Naw, I've seen that behavior. This ol' boy got into the water and SWAM for 100 yds. and emerged from the water the SAME color he was when he got in. This boy had a DARK undercoat and a creamy-white outer guard hair coat. He had a "halo" type of look to him as a result of the two shades of hair at different layers.
So... there I am, going about my normal routine, when I hear "This is a drill... a sow/cub polar bear have been spotted on our island, covered in oil". Of course... I haven't been told ANYTHING, including "what" I was looking for... plywood cutouts, etc. I see a bundle of white on the beach, next to our WEST boat ramp, but, want to rule out anything else that may be simulating a pair of oiled bears. Besides... this bundle is right where the boat crews will be deploying containment boom, so it may be part of their gear stash. I'll complete my loop of the island, and investigate this further in a couple of minutes.
Rounding a corner of the island, one of the truck drivers is waving his radio at me and frantically pointing to the EAST boat ramp area. Aha !!! My hunch was right, my simulated bears are on THIS side... WTF?!?!?! Nope, I've got the REAL thing in the water right in front of me !!!! 50 feet from shore and putting the CREEP on us !! Now, mind you, this water is only 3 feet deep, and the ONLY things I'm seeing on this bear are his ears/eyes/nose and the top of his snout and forehead !!! And, he's fixing to come ashore right before my very eyeballs ! Well... as it turns out, a loader operator was on the radio screaming for the desk to have me respond, the desk guy was making his list of "who to call on the phone" things happen for the simulation, and realizes there's more than the simulation going on. So, he's hanging up the phone and reaching for the radio when I call in to confirm what's unfolding. LOL I brought the rig I drive onto the boat ramp (facing the bear), and the loader operators (both are CAT 966H) follow me and position on each flank of my rig and drop their bucket/forks. That much mechanical presence was enough to intimidate the bear and he changed course at the last second and headed for the barrier island (150yds away).
Once he was away from the boat ramp, I drove to the NE corner of the island and bail out of my rig with shotgun slung and head to a spot where I can watch him to verify he's not coming ashore just away from the boat ramp. I'm pulling slugs from the saddle and ready to chamber when I see he's still swimming away and to the barrier island. Well... he reached that shore and as he emerged from the water, he just kept emerging, and emerging... OMG... BIG bear !!!
Needless to say, the drill got put on hold while all this was going on, and I kept him in sight until he'd walked the full length of the barrier island and gotten into the water to swim to the next island over. It's pretty cool to see them disappear, then see their entire body as they're riding a breaker and rise up.... vanish again... until they're far enough from shore to have no wave action like that to showcase them.
Otay... paperwork for the REAL thing done, and it's back to the simulated thing. Yup, the initial blobs were my simulated bears, and the game played out, notifications were made, played taxi service for the Federal Fish and Wildlife folks there to do the simulated tranquilizing of the pair... got the on-site equipment over to help load 'em into the boat, and my part of the drill was done.
Me thinks the Good Lord was helpful in causing me to do what I did... had I gotten out of the rig to verify the blobs... I'd've missed this bear coming ashore, and who knows WHAT havoc he'd've wreaked. He was putting the CREEP on and wanted a Happy Meal (worker).
Hey, at least I got a free Solar battery charger out of the deal. LOL
Oh, yeah... I show my pix of the "hybrid" (I'd seen a few days before), and she's trying to tell me it was just a dirty bear that'd been rolling around. Naw, I've seen that behavior. This ol' boy got into the water and SWAM for 100 yds. and emerged from the water the SAME color he was when he got in. This boy had a DARK undercoat and a creamy-white outer guard hair coat. He had a "halo" type of look to him as a result of the two shades of hair at different layers.