Ostrov Beringa

Bering Island lies east of Kamchatka in the North Pacific, exposed to fog, wind and the cold sea. Its shores were home to sea otters, fur seals and the great sea cow described by the naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller. Treeless and remote, the island was uninhabited when a damaged expedition ship came ashore in 1741.

Returning from a voyage toward Alaska, Vitus Bering and the crew of the St Peter were stranded here for the winter, weakened by illness and a difficult voyage. Bering died on the island, but survivors built a smaller vessel from the wreck and returned to Kamchatka in 1742. Steller recorded its remarkable animals; the sea cow was hunted for meat and disappeared within three decades of his observations.