Pribilof Islands

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Location in Alaska

The Pribilof Islands (formerly the Northern Fur Seal Islands;

2010 census

.

Principal islands

The principal islands are

Walrus islets are near St. Paul. The total land area of all the islands is 75.072 sq mi (194.44 km²). The islands are part of the Bering Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.^[3]

Fur trade

While oral traditions of the

Russian America.^[5]

With the creation of the Russian-American Company, a monopoly, Russian operations continued on the islands. Under the Alaska Purchase sovereignty was passed to the United States in 1867. From 1870 to 1890, the U.S. government leased them to the Alaska Commercial Company. From 1890 through 1910, the North American Commercial Company held the monopoly on seal-hunting there, but the industry shrank considerably owing to seal-hunting on the open sea.

The

Aleuts

.

Ambrose Bierce suggested that the island should adopt for its motto 'locus sigilli' ("Place of the Seal (emblem)") in his The Devil's Dictionary.

A post office was established for the Pribilofs in 1948 at St. Paul, with Mrs. Ruth Anderson as postmistress.^[7]

Seal Island Historic District

Naturalist and paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews visited the islands in 1913 aboard the schooner Adventuress on her maiden voyage with John Borden and crew. His films of fur seals led to efforts to protect the animals. The buildings on St. George and St. Paul Islands related to the hunting of the northern fur seal make up the national historic district.

Today

Residents are concentrated in the towns of St. Paul and St. George, each on the island of the same name. Many of the residents of the islands are related. St. Paul and St. George each have small airports; air service is provided from the Alaskan mainland.

St. Paul has a population of 479 (2010 census), with its economy heavily dependent on the annual taking of the

LORAN-C master station, as LORAN technology has been replaced by satellite navigation. The National Weather Service has a station on the island, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

maintains a presence.

St. George has a population of 102. Its economy is similar to that of St. Paul.

The Pribilof Islands are a birdwatching attraction, home to many species that do not fly in North America beyond Alaska.^[8]^{[clarification needed]} More than 210 species have been identified,^[9] and an estimated two million seabirds nest there annually. St. Paul is particularly popular, having a high cliff wall, known as Ridge Wall, above the Bering Sea.

References

^ Geoghegan, Richard Henry (1944). The Aleut language. [Washington, DC]: United States Department of the Interior. p. 102.
^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pribilof Islands" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
^ Bering Sea Unit, AMNWR Archived August 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine U.S. Fish and Wildlife
^ ^a ^b Veltre, Douglas W. and Allen P. McCartney. Russian Exploitation of Aleuts and Fur Seals: The Archaeology of Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Settlements in the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Historical Archaeology 36, No. 3 (2002), pp. 8–17.
^ ^a ^b Solojova, Katerina and Aleksandra Vovnyanko. The Rise and Decline of the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company: Russian Colonization of South Central Alaska, 1787–1798. The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 90, No. 4 (1999), pp. 191–205.
^ Fur Seal Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 1151–1187, P.L. 89-702, November 2, 1966, 80 Stat. 1091)
^ "Pribilofs get a postmistress". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. November 14, 1948. p. 2.
^ Drew, Emily (October 2, 2018). "Big leap: Birding the Pribilofs". BirdWatching. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
^ "St. Paul |". Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. Retrieved August 7, 2023.

External links

The AMIQ Institute – a research project documenting the Pribilof Islands and their inhabitants
FURSEAL.HTML – summary of the Fur Seal Act at U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service web site. Retrieved on April 16, 2008.
16 U.S.C. CHAPTER 24—CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION OF NORTH PACIFIC FUR SEALS – text of the U.S. Code on the U.S. Government Printing Office web site. Retrieved on April 16, 2008.
Alaska Fisheries Science Center Historical Corner: The Pribilof Islands Retrieved on July 23, 2014.
Pribilof Islands Seal Trade Collection at Dartmouth College Library

56°50′N 170°00′W / 56.833°N 170.000°W / 56.833; -170.000

[1] Geoghegan, Richard Henry (1944). The Aleut language. [Washington, DC]: United States Department of the Interior. p. 102.

[eb1911-2] Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pribilof Islands" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

[3] Bering Sea Unit, AMNWR Archived August 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine U.S. Fish and Wildlife

[Veltre-4] Veltre, Douglas W. and Allen P. McCartney. Russian Exploitation of Aleuts and Fur Seals: The Archaeology of Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Settlements in the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Historical Archaeology 36, No. 3 (2002), pp. 8–17.

[LLC-5] Solojova, Katerina and Aleksandra Vovnyanko. The Rise and Decline of the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company: Russian Colonization of South Central Alaska, 1787–1798. The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 90, No. 4 (1999), pp. 191–205.

[6] Fur Seal Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 1151–1187, P.L. 89-702, November 2, 1966, 80 Stat. 1091)

[posmist-7] "Pribilofs get a postmistress". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. November 14, 1948. p. 2.

[8] Drew, Emily (October 2, 2018). "Big leap: Birding the Pribilofs". BirdWatching. Retrieved August 7, 2023.

[9] "St. Paul |". Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. Retrieved August 7, 2023.

[3]

[5]

[7]

[8]

[9]

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