Seattle Kraken's mascot was nearly attacked by a bear in frightening video
One of professional sports’ most interesting and unique mascots had a very scary wildlife encounter recently.
Buoy, who serves as the Seattle Kraken’s mascot, was revealed ahead of the organization’s second NHL season in 2022-23. The 6-foot tall, blue sea troll quickly garnered attention thanks to his fun and rather unusual look. That unusual look may have been what played a part in a scary recently uploaded encounter with a bear.
Buoy was being filmed as part of a fishing content piece. The Kraken mascot was out on a river with forward John Hayden and several others, when all of a sudden a bear was spotted in the background.
“While we were fishing, we had a pretty close call with a couple bears,” Hayden says in the video.
Immediately after, the video shows a bear approaching the group. While the bear seems quite hesitant in the early going, it quickly began picking up its pace, and at one point was making a charge at Buoy. Thankfully, the Kraken mascot remained impressively calm and the bear eventually wandered off.
“I want to blame it in Buoy, they were pretty interested in his whole look,” Hayden said. “We got out of it ok, but it was a close call.”
TROLL NARROWLY ESCAPES BEAR ENCOUNTERš¤Æš§š»
*no trolls or bears were hurt in the making, always respect wildlife in their natural habitat š©¶ pic.twitter.com/WBvw9RFkS0
— Buoy (@SEAbuoy) July 31, 2025
While this video ended up being quite funny thanks to the fact that everybody was ok, it serves as a good reminder to always be prepared for wildlife encounters any time you’re out in the wilderness. Perhaps next time any sort of fishing or wildlife content with the Kraken won’t involve a mascot that catches animals attention like Buoy seems to.