Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge

The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (often shortened to Alaska Maritime or AMNWR) is a United States National Wildlife Refuge comprising 2,400 islands, headlands, rocks, islets, spires and reefs in Alaska, with a total area of , of which is wilderness. The refuge stretches from Cape Lisburne on the Chukchi Sea to the tip of the Aleutian Islands in the west and Forrester Island in the southern Alaska Panhandle region in the east. The refuge has diverse landforms and terrains, including tundra, rainforest, cliffs, volcanoes, beaches, lakes, and streams.

Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is well known for its abundance of seabirds. About 75 percent of Alaskan native marine birds, 15 to 30 million among 55 species, use the refuge. AMNWR also provides a nesting habitat for an estimated 40 million seabirds, representing 80 percent of all seabirds in North America. The birds congregate in "bird cities" (colonies) along the coast. Each species has a specialized nesting site (rock ledge, crevice, boulder rubble, pinnacle, or burrow). Other animals present in this refuge include caribou, sea lions, bears, coyotes, seals, Canada lynx, beavers, foxes, muskrats, wolf packs, moose, walrus, river otters, marten, whales, Dall sheep and sea otters.

The administrative headquarters and visitor center are located in Homer, Alaska. In 1968, Simeonof National Wildlife Refuge, part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.

Administration

The refuge is divided into five units. Clockwise around Alaska, starting in the southeast, their component territories include:

Gulf of Alaska unit

Saint Lazaria Wilderness (formerly Saint Lazaria National Wildlife Refuge) (Saint Lazaria Island)
Hazy Islands Wilderness (Hazy Islands)
Forrester Island Wilderness (Forrester Island, Lowrie Island, Wolf Rock)
Barren Islands (East Amatuli Island, West Amatuli Island, Ushagat Island, et al.)
Tuxedni Wilderness (Chisik Island, Duck Island, and Egg Island)
Middleton Island
Chiswell Islands
Trinity Island (Sitkinak Island)

Alaska Peninsula unit

Sutwik Island
Semidi Wilderness (Semidi Islands: Aghik Island and Chowiet Island, et al.)
Simeonof Wilderness (Simeonof Island, part of the Shumagin Islands)

Aleutian Islands unit

thumb|[[Kagamil Island]]

Includes most of the land area of the Aleutian Islands, from Unimak in the east to Attu in the west: Near Islands, Rat Islands, Delarof Islands, Andreanof Islands, Islands of Four Mountains, Fox Islands, and Krenitzin Islands

Unimak Wilderness (Unimak Island)
Aleutian Islands Wilderness – , designated 1980
Bogoslof Wilderness (Bogoslof Island) – , designated 1970

Bering Sea unit

thumb|Refuge staffer holding a [[least auklet on St. George Island]]

Hagemeister Island
Pribilof Islands (St. George Island, St. Paul Island, Otter Island, Walrus Island)
Bering Sea Wilderness (St. Matthew Island, Hall Island, Pinnacle Island) – , designated 1970
Besboro Island
Sledge Island
King Island

Chukchi Sea unit

Chamisso Wilderness (Chamisso Island, Puffin Island)
Cape Thompson
Cape Lisburne

Gallery

File:Hazy Islet.jpg|Big Hazy Islet - Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge

File:Gullisland.jpg|Gull Island, a small rocky outcropping on Kachemak Bay is the summer home to an estimated 10,000 seabirds

File:Thick-billed Murres in Alaska refuge.jpg|Thick-billed murres in the refuge

File:East Amatuli Island, Barren Islands, July 1985.jpg|East Amatuli Island, Barren Islands, Gulf of Alaska Unit

File:Castle Cape, Alaska Peninsula Unit.jpg|Castle Cape, Alaska Peninsula Unit

File:APRCape Thompson, Biologist at Murre plot, August 1995.jpg|Cape Thompson

File:Three walrus near Cape Lisburne, Alaska by USFWS.jpg|Three walrus near Cape Lisburne

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