A BLACK bear swam a river, climbed onto a dock and junmped into a boat to maul a fisherman in Canada.

Conservation officer Gord Hitchcock said the 52-year-old man was fishing from a boat at a marina in a tiny coastal community off Canada's Pacific coast when he was attacked, the Associated Press reported.

His friends used hooked poles, knives and a hammer to pull the bear off him...

The man, who was not identified, was taken to hospital with cuts to his arm and upper body, the AP said.

Fire chief Dan Tennant said he had never heard of such an incident in an area where the bears were normally docile.

(Courtesy of Perth NOW)

He won't forget that fishing trip in a hurry