Bears on the Beach? ‘It’s not uncommon,’ Florida charter boat captain says after bear swims to beach.
When you go to the beach, you expect to see dolphins, seagulls and a variety of sea life.
But black bears on the beach? Or swimming in the surf? That might surprise you.
“It’s not uncommon,” said Captain Chris Kirby, a charter boat captain for Charter Boat Backlash, which operates out of Destin. “There are a lot of bears at Eglin Air Force Base. They swim across the bay. Sometimes they go for a joy swim.”
That’s what happened on Sunday just after noon, when a number of beachgoers had a close encounter with a bear that swam in from the Gulf and ran ashore at Destin, FL. It ran past beach umbrellas and beach chairs in front of Silver Dunes Condominium, and kept going.
“At first no one on shore could tell what it was in the ocean,” Jennifer Smith, who is vacationing from Nashville, told AL.com. “A man was yelling out ‘Bear!’ You would expect “shark or dolphin” but not bear. It came out of the Gulf and look tired but relieved.
Captain Kirby, who grew up on the Gulf Coast, said he’s seen bears swimming in the Gulf of Mexico and it’s nothing new and not that unusual. “Everybody’s just got cell phones now and they get pictures,” he said.

 Several videos at the link:
https://www.al.com/life/2023/06/bears-on-the-beach-its-not-uncommon-charter-boat-captain-says.html