Pribilof Islands
American Heritage Dictionary:
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Prib·i·lof Islands
A group of islands off southwest Alaska in the Bering Sea. First visited and named by a Russian explorer in 1786, they are noted as a breeding ground for seals.
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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Pribilof Islands
Group of islands, southeastern Bering Sea, Alaska, U.S. It includes St. Paul, St. George, and three islets, and it lies about 300 mi (500 km) west of the mainland. Control of the islands was transferred from Russia to the U.S. with the Alaska Purchase (1867). The islands are hilly and treeless with no harbours. They are breeding grounds from April to November for most of the world's fur seals. Commercial harvesting of seals was discontinued in 1986. The islands are also home to enormous numbers of birds and both blue and white phases of Arctic foxes. The indigenous population is made up of Aleuts.
For more information on Pribilof Islands, visit Britannica.com.
Gale Encyclopedia of US History:
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Pribilof Islands
The Pribilof Islands, in the Bering Sea, were first visited in 1786 by the Russian explorer Gerasim Pribylov. The islands were ceded to the United States by Russia at the time of the purchase of Alaska in 1867. As the summer breeding grounds of the largest known herd of seals, they became the subject of a controversy between the United States, Great Britain, and other nations whose subjects were slaughtering the seals for their fur. In 1869 the U.S. Congress passed a law restricting the sealing. An American cutter seized Canadian vessels engaged in pelagic sealing in 1886. The British government vigorously protested, and an arbitration tribunal, agreed to in 1892, decided against the United States in 1893. The dispute was finally settled in 1911 by the North Pacific Sealing Convention between Great Britain, Russia, Japan, and the United States. The United States was given the right to regulate the killing of the seals, and the herd increased from a low of 127,000 in 1911 to more than 2.5 million in the 1960s. Japan withdrew from the convention in 1941, during World War II.
Bibliography
Elliott, Henry Wood. The Seal Islands of Alaska. Kingston, Ontario, Canada: Limestone Press, 1976.
Jones, Dorothy Miriam. A Century of Servitude: Pribilof Aleuts Under U.S. Rule. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1980.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Pribilof Islands
Pribilof Islands (prĭb'ĭlŏf'), group of four volcanic islands, off SW Alaska in the Bering Sea, c.230 mi (370 km) N of the Aleutian Islands; explored and named in 1786 by Gerasim Pribilof, a Russian navigator. The larger islands, St. Paul and St. George, are famous as the breeding place of the Alaska fur seal. The islands, part of the 1867 U.S. purchase of Alaska, became a seal reservation in 1868; they are administered by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. Prior to 1911, competition and ruthless hunting methods threatened extinction of the seals. At that time, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Russia entered into the North Pacific Sealing Convention, giving the United States the right to enforce the provisions of the convention (see Bering Sea Fur-Seal Controversy under Bering Sea). Japan withdrew from the convention in 1941. Under protection, the seal herd has greatly increased. Blue and white foxes are native to the islands. The Aleuts, brought to the islands in the late 1700s by the Russians, make a living by processing the seal and fox furs.
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Pribilof Islands
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Location in Alaska
The Pribilof Islands (formerly the Northern Fur Seal Islands) are a group of four volcanic islands off the coast of mainland Alaska, in the Bering Sea, about 200 miles (320 km) north of Unalaska and 200 miles southwest of Cape Newenham. The Siberia coast is roughly 500 miles (800 km) northwest. About 200 km2 (77 sq mi) in total area, they are mostly rocky and are covered with tundra, with a population of 684 as of the 2000 census.
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Principal islands
The principal islands are St. Paul and St. George. The former was named for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, on the day of which the island was discovered; the latter was probably named for the ship sailed by the islands' discoverer, Gavriil Pribilof.[1] The Otter and 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.[2]
The islands were first visited by Europeans in 1786 by Gavriil Pribylov, who discovered the fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) rookeries for which they became famous, and thus became Russian territory. The islands passed to the United States in 1867 with the Alaska Purchase. 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 North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 was signed by Canada, Japan, Russia, and the United States to restrict hunting in the area. Under the Fur Seal Act[3] of 1966, hunting of the seals was forbidden in the Pribilofs, with the exception of subsistence hunting by native Aleuts.
Seal Island Historic District
Main article: Seal Island Historic District
Naturalist and paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews visited the island in 1913 aboard the schooner Adventuress in 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 an island of the same name.
Today, St. Paul has a population of 532 (2000 census), with its economy heavily dependent on the annual taking of the snow crab and on subsistence and commercial halibut harvests. Support services to commercial fleets plying the waters of the Bering Sea also contribute to the economy. The balance of economic activity on the island relates to working for the government. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains a base on St. Paul, but no longer maintains a LORAN-C master station, as the technology has been replaced by GPS 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 152. The economy is similar to that of St Paul. Many of the residents of the islands are related. The islands are home to a majority of Alaska's Aleut population.[citation needed]
The Pribilof Islands are a birdwatching attraction, home to many species that do not fly in North America beyond Alaska. More than 240 species have been identified, 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.
See also
- Harrison Gray Otis (publisher), chief government agent in 1879
References
- ^
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pribilof Islands". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. - ^ Bering Sea Unit, AMNWR U.S. Fish and Wildlife
- ^ Fur Seal Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 1151-1187, P.L. 89-702, November 2, 1966, 80 Stat. 1091)
- Pribilof Islands: Blocks 1000 thru 1068, Census Tract 1, Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska United States Census Bureau
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.
Coordinates: 56°50′N 170°00′W / 56.833°N 170°W
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Gale Encyclopedia of US History
Encyclopedia of American History Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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Mentioned in
Wild Kingdom: New Animal World - Seals of Pribilof
(1998 Nature Film)
The Prairie and Seal Island: Disneyland (TV Episode)
(1954 TV Episode)
Bering Sea
(body of water, the Pacific/Russia/Alaska)
fur seal
(mammal, carnivore)
Sealing
(American history)
» More