The Commander Islands, Komandorski Islands, or Komandorskie Islands (, Komandorskiye ostrova) are a series of islands in the Russian Far East, a part of the Aleutian Islands, located about east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. Treeless and sparsely populated, the islands consist of Bering Island, ; Medny Island, ; and fifteen islets and rocks. The largest of the latter are Tufted Puffin Rock (Kamen Toporkov or Ostrov Toporkov), , and Kamen Ariy, which are between west of the only settlement, Nikolskoye. Administratively, the Commanders compose the Aleutsky District of the Kamchatka Krai in Russia.

In 2005, the Comandorsky State Nature Reserve was nominated for the List of World Heritage Sites in Russia of UNESCO.

Geography

thumb|right|350px|Detailed map including the Commander Islands

The Commander Islands archipelago consists of 15 islands and is a part of a submarine volcanic ridge extending from Alaska to Kamchatka dated by the beginning of Paleogene (60-70 million years ago). The majority of the island chain's area, as well as much of the adjacent marine habitat, , is taken up by the Komandorsky Zapovednik, a natural preserve. The economy is based primarily on fishing, mushroom gathering, the administration of the zapovednik (i.e. strictly protected wilderness), ecotourism and government services.

The village has a school, a satellite tracking station and a dirt airstrip to its south.

The other settlements on the two islands are small villages or scattering of houses:

  • Severnoye
  • Podutesnaya
  • Gladkovskaya
  • Lisennova
  • Peschanka
  • Preobrazhenskoye
  • Glinka

Natural history

thumb|right|Detail from an early map by [[Great Northern Expedition|Bering expedition member S. Khitrov of eastern Kamchatka, including the Commander Islands, with drawings of Steller's sea cow, the northern fur seal and the Steller sea lion.]]

thumb|Medny Island

There is no true forest on the Commander Islands. The vegetation is dominated by lichens, mosses and different associations of marshy plants with low grass and dwarf trees. Very tall umbellifers are also common.

Mammals

Due to the high productivity of the Bering Sea shelf and the Pacific slope and their remoteness from human influence, the Commander Islands are marked by a great abundance of marine animal life and a relative paucity of terrestrial organisms. Notably, significant numbers of northern fur seals (some 200,000 individuals) and Steller sea lions (approximately 5,000 individuals) summer there, both on reproductive rookeries and non-reproductive haul-outs. Sea otters, common seals and larga seals are likewise abundant. Indeed, the sea otter population is stable and possibly increasing, even as their population is falling precipitously in the rest of the Aleutian islands.

The neighboring waters provide important feeding, wintering and migrating habitat for many whale species, many of which are threatened or endangered. Among these are: sperm whales, orcas, several species of Minke whales, beaked whales, and porpoises, humpbacks and endangered species such as the North Pacific right whales and fin whales.

Bering Island was the only known habitat of Steller's sea cows, an immense (over ) sirenian related to the dugong. The sea cow was hunted to extinction within 27 years of its discovery in 1741.

The much less diverse terrestrial fauna includes two distinct, endemic subspecies of Arctic fox, (Alopex lagopus semenovi and A. l. beringensis). Though relatively healthy now, these populations had been significantly depleted in the past due to the fur trade. Most other terrestrial species, including wild reindeer, American mink and rats, have all been introduced to the islands by man. In total, over 180 bird species have been registered on the Commander Islands. The spectacled cormorant, a large essentially flightless bird in the cormorant family, was driven to extinction by around 1850. The islands have been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because they support populations of various threatened bird species, including many waterbirds and seabirds.

thumb|Bering Island

The fish fauna in the mountainous, fast running streams is composed primarily of migratory salmonids, including Arctic char, Dolly Varden, black spotted trout, chinook, sockeye, coho and pink salmon.

There are no amphibians or reptiles on the Commander Islands.

History

thumb|right|Group of [[Aleut people|Aleut hunters from Bering Island ( 1884–1886)]]

The Commander Islands received their name from Commander Vitus Bering, whose ship St Peter wrecked on the otherwise uninhabited Bering Island on his return voyage from Alaska in 1741. Bering died on the island along with much of the crew. His grave is marked by a modest monument. About half of the crew did manage to survive the winter, thanks in part to the abundance of wildlife (notably the newly discovered Steller's sea cow) and the efforts of naturalist and physician Georg Wilhelm Steller, who cured many of the men of scurvy by compelling them to eat seaweed. Eventually, a smaller boat was built from the remains of the St. Peter and the survivors found their way back to Kamchatka, heavily laden with valuable sea otter pelts. The discovery of the sea otters sparked the great rush of fur-seeking "promyshlenniki" which drove the Russian expansion into Alaska.

thumb|right|250px|1966 Soviet postage stamp depicting [[Vitus Bering|Bering's second voyage and the discovery of the Commander Islands]]

Aleut (Unangan) people were transferred to the Commander Islands early in 1825 by the Russian-American Company from the Aleutians for the seal trade. Most of the Aleuts inhabiting Bering Island came from Atka Island and those who lived on Medny Island came from Attu Island, now both American possessions. A mixed language called Mednyj Aleut, with Aleut roots but Russian verb inflection, developed among the inhabitants. Today the population of the islands is about two-thirds Russian and one-third Aleut.

The 1943 Battle of the Komandorski Islands took place in the open sea about south of the islands.

See also

  • Aleuts in Russia
  • Preobrazhenskoye, Kamchatka Oblast, a now-abandoned village on Medny Island.

Notes

References

  • Richard Ellis, Encyclopedia of the Sea, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
  • Artyukhin Yu. B. Commander Islands, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 2005.
  • Unofficial website of the Commander Islands
  • Photos of the Commander Islands
  • Overview of the Kommandorsky Zapovednik
  • Details of their current situation
  • Commander Islands at the Natural Heritage Protection Fund.
  • Island in a Storm
  • RI0Z Amateur Radio Expedition to Commander Islands