Bering Island
| Bering Island | |
| Behring Island | |
| Island | |
 Bering Island from space, March 1992
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| Official name: Beringa, Ostrov | |
| Country | Russia |
|---|---|
| Oblast | Kamchatskaya |
| City | Nikolskoye |
| Coordinates | 55°0′3″N 166°16′23″E / 55.00083°N 166.27306°ECoordinates: 55°0′3″N 166°16′23″E / 55.00083°N 166.27306°E |
| Highest point | |
| - elevation | 755.4 m (2,478 ft) |
| Lowest point | |
| - elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Bering Island (Russian: о́стров Бе́ринга, ostrov Beringa) is located off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea.
At 90 kilometers (56 mi) long by 24 kilometers (15 mi) wide, it is the largest and westernmost of the Commander Islands, with an area of 1,660 square kilometers (640 sq mi). Most of Bering island and several of the smaller islands in their entirety are now part of the Komandorsky Zapovednik nature preserve.
Known as the "hidden Jewel of the U.S.-Russia Maritime Boundary," Bering Island is treeless, desolate and experiences severe weather, including high winds, persistent fog and earthquakes. It had no year-round human residents until roughly 1826. Now, the village of Nikolskoye is home to 800 people, roughly three hundred of them identifying as Aleuts. The island's scant population is involved mostly in fishing.
4 km off Bering Island's northwest shore lies small Toporkov Island (Ostrov Toporkov) 55°12′9″N 165°55′59″E / 55.20250°N 165.93306°E. It is a round island with a diameter of 800 m.
In 1741 Commander Vitus Bering, sailing in Svyatoy Pyotr (St. Peter) for the Russian Navy, was shipwrecked and died of scurvy on Bering Island, along with 28 of his men. His ship had been destroyed by storms as they returned from an expedition that discovered mainland Alaska as well as the Aleutian Islands. The survivors under the command of the Swedish born lieutenant Sven Waxell were stranded on the island for 10 months, and managed to survive by killing seals and birds. They were able to build a boat out of their stranded wreck and managed to return to Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula in 1742 with sea otter furs and preserved meat from the newly discovered island.
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Wikipedia