Alaska’s Katmai National Park has a charming livestream that’s a treat to tune into. The rushing water is soothing, you get to see the salmon making their signature upstream leaps, and you’ll see bears depending on the time. (I was staring at one for a while last night that I thought was a rock until the camera zoomed in and the big galumph started moving, rolling onto its back like my dog asking for a belly rub.) Or you might catch a glimpse of an invasive species: the National Hockey League’s own Seattle Kraken, who make a yearly migration up from their native Washington to the 49th state. Last week, the hockey team visited Katmai for a little fly fishing, with even their mascot Buoy the sea troll in tow. Only the fuzzy costume (yes, Buoy donned fly fishing gear over his mascot uniform) sparked some curiosity from a grizzly bear: the bear full-on charged at the strange, blue-haired troll encroaching on his turf! Luckily, no creatures were harmed. And the team captured excellent video of the near-miss.
Kraken center John Hayden talked through the close encounter in the video, saying, “While we were fishing, we had a pretty close call with a couple [of] bears.”
The footage then cut to a shot of Hayden fishing in a stream as the camera panned to the tree cover behind him and showed a brown grizzly bear making its way out of the woods and into the stream.
“We got a bear,” he told the camera, as another crew member said, “Oh, I got to break you off now. Hey Sam, we got a bear, we’ve got to move down.”
Hayden could be seen handing over his fly fishing pole to a crew member as the pair and filming crew began making their way downstream. However, it appeared that the bear wanted to follow them, as he could be seen dipping into the stream and heading in their direction.
At one point, the bear could be seen spotting Buoy the sea troll, who was also fly fishing with the team. The animal let out a roar and then could be seen charging toward the mascot as he hurried to move away.
Luckily, the grizzly bear stopped a few feet away from Buoy in the water. Another angle shot of the bear charging at the Kraken players and filming crew near the end of the video showed just how close the bear got to the team before they got away.
Hayden said in the video that they “got out of it okay,” but it was quite a “close call.” He also noted that the bear likely went after the mascot as it was “pretty interested in his whole look.”
“That last little sprint, I was worried for you Buoy,” a crew member told the mascot, who could be seen shaking his head before the video ended.”
“TROLL NARROWLY ESCAPES BEAR ENCOUNTER,” the team captioned the video. They added, “*no trolls or bears were hurt in the making, always respect wildlife in their natural habitat.”
In response to the video on X, one person noted that they had a similar close call with a “bull moose” while hiking on the side of a mountain. The person noted that despite getting “chased” by the animal they did not get “hurt.”
Another person joked that the bear may have thought Buoy was a friend, writing, “If not friend, why friend shaped?”
The team had been traveling across Alaska for their annual community engagement partnership trip with the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, according to UPI. The trip also included a “Kraken Week” where the team got to work with the Anchorage Hockey Academy’s youth hockey camp, per the outlet.
Yikes!! Thank goodness all critters came out safe and unharmed! Naturally, I have questions. For one, why does a team named “Kraken” have a troll for a mascot? That just seems like Mascot & Branding 101. Plus the kraken is such an iconic, evocative image — why wouldn’t you want to give that the puppet character treatment?! It just doesn’t make sense. Is John Oliver available for one more mascot rebrand? Moving along to my next issue: why does the Seattle team do an annual trip across Alaska, instead of, I don’t know, say their home state of Washington? Is that weird, or would it make total sense if I followed hockey more closely? (i.e., at all.) And lastly, bringing the mascot costume along for the ride. While I admire the dedication, why is Buoy out on the water fly fishing?! And what’s it like traveling through airport security with that thing? I realize he wasn’t wearing it on the flight (or was he?!), but I bet it still raised eyebrows, as hairy as the ones adorning the mascot himself. So many questions…
I’m just glad they didn’t hurt the bear. I just got back from three weeks in Alaska last month, and every tour provided “bear deterrence” which was the tour guide packing a gun. I said to all of them “please don’t shoot a bear unless it’s actively biting me.” We’re going into the bears’ home territory, I don’t want them to be killed because we spooked them. Anyway, I can understand bringing the person who plays the mascot along on whatever team-building retreat this is, but why make him wear the costume? The other guys aren’t wearing their hockey uniforms. The bear saw a giant thing in bright unusual colors and must have thought it posed a threat, I can’t blame it for charging, but the poor guy in that mascot costume was *this* close to earning a Darwin Award.
He chose to wear the costume. They didn’t make him.
To answer a couple questions – $$$$
NHL teams travel for engagement & community enrichment. Everyone wants to get a hold on a market.
Alaska is a big market for the Kraken due to the proximity & they’re up there doing clinics They do also travel within Washington & teams play preseason clinics all over the place now. VGK does offseason travel all over the west, the Kings used to come to Vegas decades before they had a team
There’s a long back story behind Buoy but he’s an homage to the Seattle
Bridge Troll. Mascots aren’t an always a physical representation of the team, they’re typically a nod to local culture & you can now sell more merch, especially to kids.
But yeah all of this would make sense if you followed hockey 🙂 try it!!
Excellent comment. To add to it: All of the Seattle professional sports teams have a huge fan base in Alaska (due to the relative lack of professional sports teams in AK and due to Seattle being the closest big US city geographically), so it makes sense that they would do in-person events in AK.
I would also suggest they’re salmon fishing in Alaska at this time of year instead of Washington due to different fisheries protections & licensing the individual states have. And/or this is where the salmon are right now, Alaska & not Washington.
Seattleite here! The Kraken mascot is a troll because of our Fremont Troll, a famous sculpture and tourist site. Since a kraken is a myth with a variety of incarnations, the team didn’t want to try to do a “cartoon version.”
Here’s a reference where you can also see a photo of the Fremont Troll. (In his left hand is an actual VW Beetle.)
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nhl/news/kraken-new-mascot-buoy-troll-meaning-seattle/h0rwqibvby29qjhnoxd4qxnw
Heart eyes from Seattle. Buoy rules!
Points to his internal human for being able to shift it in costume and waders.
Hello from another “Dee” in Seattle! I thought the same thing: The person in the mascot suit has got to be as fit and athletic as the hockey players. I was impressed by how nimble they were in that costume. I would have just flopped into the water and become a bear toy and/or snack.
Running in water in a fursuit from a bear would not be my outdoor activity of choice. Buoy is a heck of an athlete. He’s genuinely incredible at games. There’s a clip I loved of him casually throwing down a flawless death drop impromptu at a danceoff (in his fursuit!!) in the tunnel at a home game. He has a great sense of humor and charisma as well as athleticism, and has truly created a character people love.
It’s me. I’m people.
Love you Seattle!!
Wow! So crazy! Love it