A First Nations legend states that Raven, the Creator, made one in every ten black bears white, as a reminder of the last ice age, when the earth was clean and white. Raven decreed that these white bears would live on these islands in peace and harmony forever.

The Tsimshian people of this area know the bear as ‘Moksgmol,’ the spirit of the ancient rainforest, which why it is sometimes known as Spirit Bear or Ghost Bear.

The temperate rainforests of the Pacific coast once stretched from Northern California to Alaska but today, only Alaska and British Columbia still contain large, undisturbed tracts. Scientists estimate that, in the area that has become known as the Great Bear Rainforest—an area roughly the size of Switzerland, covering 7 million hectares—there remain only about 1200 black or white Kermode bears

Several tour operators offer trips into the Great Bear Rainforest, where one can view these majestic bears in a safe and non-invasive way.