The Don Sullivan Show

Exploring Katmai National Park with an Alaskan Bush Pilot: Salmon, Bears, and the Cycle of Life


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A few hundred miles south of the majestic Lake Clark, Alaska, lies the awe-inspiring Katmai National Park, a place as mystifying as it is magnificent. Accessible only by floatplane, our team had the rare privilege of being flown, guided, and escorted through this untamed wilderness by the remarkable Alaskan bush pilot Benjamin Bunn. Katmai is world-renowned for its unforgettable scenes of grizzly bears perched atop Brooks Falls, skillfully catching salmon as they leap upstream toward their spawning grounds. This dramatic encounter between two forces of nature — the raw power of the bears and the relentless determination of the salmon — is truly breathtaking. After years spent in the ocean, the salmon somehow navigate back to the exact place of their birth, where they spawn and then die, completing one of nature’s most profound cycles. This phenomenon challenges human comprehension, standing as a powerful testament to both the beauty and the brutality of the natural world. Listen to this extraordinary episode, for the sake of the salmon who persevere and the bears who are sustained by their journey.

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The Don Sullivan ShowBy Don Sullivan