I found myself in a situation the other day that I've never been in before. I was paddling along in my canoe with my wife and kids, when suddenly a young black bear came scrambling down the slope, jumped in the water, and started swimming towards the other side of the lake off our bow.
We weren't in any danger. The bear was swimming straight for the other shore with an obvious sort of determination. It got out on the other side, shook off, and started to graze. I of course wanted to hang around, take some video with my phone, and let my kids enjoy the scene, but my wife was on the brink of a freak out and wanted to get as far away as possible.
While reassuring her that we were in no danger, that we were much faster than the bear in the water, and could effortlessly paddle away if the bear decided to come swimming after us, it occurred to me that I have never received any instruction about how to handle water-launched bear attacks (as extremely rare of an occurrence it may be).
What can you do to repel an attack from a bear while in water?