A 57-year-old man is in hospital in stable condition after he was attacked by a grizzly bear in Smith Inlet, a remote area on British Columbia's central coast.

Port Hardy RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Stewart says the man was employed by a shake block company and was working in the isolated area when the attack happened at around 11:30 a.m., Wednesday.

RCMP say the man was airlifted out of Smith Inlet and taken to hospital in Port Hardy to be assessed.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) says the victim was then taken to Royal Jubilee hospital in Victoria, but says the extent of his injuries is not yet known.

Normally VIHA will fly patients to the trauma care centre at Victoria General Hospital, but the heli-pad is closed because of ongoing construction to the hospital.

Smith Inlet is about 100 kilometers northeast of Port Hardy.

People familiar with the area says this latest attack comes as no surprise.

"If you are up at the head of the inlet, there are a ton of grizzlies," said David Connor, who runs Starfish Charters, which is based out of Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

"All they want to do is bite things," he said.

Related links: B.C. town up in arms over bear shooting at mall.

"Bears are always there. Whoever got bit was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Connor said bear spray works as a deterrent, but added that the victim obviously "didn't have any."

"We always carry a shotgun there when we're sport fishing out there in those areas,'' he said. "Because in [the] final minutes of those confrontations, you want to win."

Connor has the following advice for anyone traveling or working in remote areas:

"I think when you're in the bush, you should be ready to take one down if you have to, and certainly spray it with some bear spray. Their motivation is food."

It is being speculated that people working in the Smith Inlet area would have been trying to recover fallen wood before the winter sets in. Crews are often brought in by float plane.

News of the attack comes on the heels of a report this week that a roving bear was shot by police in a shopping mall in the B.C. Sunshine Coast community of Gibsons.

In May, a Vancouver Island man survived an attack by a grizzly bear in Bella Coola, about 300 kilometres north of Vancouver.

For an update on this story, check CTV News at 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.