North Pacific High Sea

The waters between the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands form part of the southern Bering Sea. Currents carry Pacific water through the Aleutian passages into this rich northern sea. Long before Russian ships arrived, Unangan hunters took fur seals as the animals migrated past their islands. In the late eighteenth century Russian captains sought the seals' breeding grounds farther north, beginning a trade that drew islanders away from the Aleutian chain.