Pribilof Islands
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 (320 km) 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 572 as of the 2010 census.
The principal islands are Saint Paul and Saint 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. 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.
While oral traditions of the Aleut people maintain the islands were sparingly visited, "no ethnohistoric or archaeological evidence points to the use or occupation of the Pribilof Islands... by any native people prior to the Russian period in Alaska." The seasonal migrations of the Northern fur seal became known by the Russians in the 1780s. Swimming north through the Aleutian Islands, the seals returned in the autumn with newly born pups. The unknown northern breeding grounds became a focus of Russian trappers. An employee of the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company, Gavriil Pribylov, sailed in 1786 to discover the location, after disobeying orders to retrieve company property in the Kurile Islands. The rookeries Pribylov visited held upwards of four million seals, for which they became famous. The islands became site to the LLC's first artel in what later became Russian America.
...
Wikipedia