In 1999, SeaWolf directors traveled to Hyder , Alaska to conduct videography of grizzly and black bears feeding on the Fish Creek tributary, in the Tongass National Forest .  During that trip, we witnessed a European tour bus feeding a large grizzly on the roadway from Hyder, outside the National Forest Boundaries. Discussing the matter with a US Forest Service worker, we learned that European tourists, most commonly German-speaking tourists, were the majority of travelers in the area (due to strong city marketing to that particular community), and that many of these tourists did not understand the protocol related to hiking or food safety issues when traveling in bear country.

The matter was made even more profound the following year, when, we learned upon return to Hyder, that a traveler had been mauled to death by a grizzly that was ‘conditioned’ to associating humans with food. That bear, as well, was eventually killed by the Forest Service.

In 2001, SeaWolf secured funding, through a grassroots initiatives, to design, build and transport two large (four-foot by eight-foot long) steel signs, written in bilingual German and English, that we donated to the Forest Service for erection on the sole roadway leading to the Fish Creek observation site in the Tongass Forest. Since that time, we have learned from the Forest Service, that these signs have become a very prominent reminder of the danger of feeding bears, and have been very valuable as an educational tool for non-English tourists traveling to the region.

Today, the signs remain prominently visible along the Stewart-Hyder roadway entering the Tongass National Forest in Alaska .

SeaWolf considers this simple, but cost-effective, public educational tool as a valuable way for the public to supplement initiatives in areas where the government may not have the resources to created solutions. We also see this as a valuable way to develop cooperative partnerships with federal agencies and conservation divisions.