North Pacific High Sea

The Gulf of Alaska opens south of a coast of mountains, islands and deep inlets. The Alaskan Stream flows westward along the edge of the continental shelf, carrying water toward the Aleutian chain. For the Sugpiaq and neighbouring peoples of the coast, boats linked settlements and hunting grounds across this maritime world. In the late eighteenth century Russian traders extended their pursuit of sea otters through the Gulf, drawing local hunters into an expanding fur trade.