Bear found on Japanese fishing boat, escapes into the sea

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water… Long-time readers of news in Japan will undoubtedly know that we have something of a bear problem .

Dwindling human populations in rural areas abandoning farms and homes have allowed a growing ursine population an opportunity to roam further in search of food.

As a result, people and bears are increasingly coming face to face, often with tragic results.

And yet, with the vast majority of Japan’s population residing in urban areas, most of us feel like it’s not our problem.

Even as bold as they’ve been becoming, bears still tend to stick to the mountains, so as long as we stay away from those, we stay away from bears.

It’s a luxury that fishermen also once enjoyed.

After all, it’s not like a bear’s going to suddenly appear out on the open sea… right? Such a scene was only narrowly avoided when a bear was found hiding out on a fishing boat docked on the coast of Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture .

On 19 September, the one-meter-tall bear was initially spotted on the wharf but took shelter in a longline tuna fishing boat nearby when police arrived. ▼ News report on the potential stowaway bear The boat had three crew members on board who hid inside private cabins while the animal was roaming the decks.

Meanwhile, police cordoned off the area and city officials also arrived to help monitor the bear’s movements.

They planned to wait until dawn to order local hunters in to kill the bear, but at around 1 a.m. the bear evaded local law enforcement by jumping from the boat and into the sea .

Authorities monitored the nearby shoreline to see where it would surface but were unable to find the animal.

Bears have shown a very strong talent for evading police cordons in the past as well .

That, combined with the fact that it only appeared to be innocently roaming around without injuring anyone, made it hard to not feel a little good that the situation was resolved without any human or animal getting hurt.

As such, many online comments were quick with jokes about it.