Командо́рские острова́(Russian) Komandorskiye ostrova
Map showing the position of the Commander Islands to the east of Kamchatka. The larger island to the west is Bering Island; the smaller island is Medny.
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).[1] The islands are the westernmost of the Aleutian Islands, most of which are part of the US state of Alaska, and are separated from the closest US island, Attu Island, and the rest of the chain by 207 mi (333 km). Between the two runs the International Date Line. The relief is somewhat diverse, encompassing folded-block mountains, volcanic plateaus, terraced plains and low mountains. The geologic origins are long-extinct volcanoes on the edge of the Pacific and North American Plates.
The highest point is Steller's Peak on Bering Island at 755 m (2,477 ft).[1] The highest point on Medny Island is Stenjeger's Peak at 647 m (2,123 ft).
The climate is relatively mild for its latitude, and maritime, with 220–240 days of precipitation per year. The cool summers are notoriously foggy. The Köppen climate classification would be classed as Dfc bordering on Cfc and Dfb.
The only permanently inhabited locality is the village of Nikolskoye on the northwest end of Bering Island, with an estimated population of 613 as of 2009[update]. This consists almost entirely of Russians and Aleuts.[2] The majority of the island chain’s area, as well as much of the adjacent marine habitat, 36,488 km2 (14,088 sq mi), 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:
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.[3] 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.[4]
Bering Island was the only known habitat of Steller's sea cows, an immense (over 4,000 kg or 8,800 lb) sirenian related to the dugong. The sea cow was hunted to extinction within 27 years of its discovery in 1741.[8]
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.[3]
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.[13] 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.
1966 Soviet postage stamp depicting 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 ⅔ Russian and ⅓ Aleut.
^ abcdBarabash-Nikiforov, I. (November 1938). "Mammals of the Commander Islands and the Surrounding Sea". Journal of Mammalogy. 19 (4): 423–429. doi:10.2307/1374226. JSTOR1374226.
^Anderson, P. (1995). "Competition, predation, and the evolution and extinction of Steller's sea cow, Hydrodamalis gigas". Marine Mammal Science. 11 (3): 391–394. doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.1995.tb00294.x.
^"Commander Islands". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
^Steller, G.W. (1988). O.W. Frost (ed.). Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741–1742. M. A. Engel; O. W. Frost (trans.). Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN0-8047-2181-5.
^Lorelli, John A. (1984) The Battle of the Komandorski Islands, March 1943. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Press, ISBN0-87021-093-9
References
Richard Ellis, Encyclopedia of the Sea, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Artyukhin Yu. B. Commander Islands, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 2005.