Qualla: St. Paul Island: Alaska's Fur Seal Capital

St. Paul Island: Alaska's Fur Seal Capital: Introduction

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit mazaletel, CC BY 2.0. Half a million fur seals return to St. Paul Island every summer to breed on the same beaches their ancestors used for millennia. The Pribilof Islands, lost in the Bering Sea 300 miles from mainland Alaska, were discovered in 1786 because Russian fur traders followed the seal migration. What they found was wealth beyond imagination - seals so numerous that hunters could simply club them. The slaughter continued for two centuries, driving populations toward extinction. Protection came in 1911; recovery followed slowly. Now the northern fur seal herd is one of the world's great wildlife gatherings, watched rather than harvested, valuable as spectacle rather than pelts.

Read more: St. Paul Island on Qualla

Image: mazaletel | CC BY 2.0

St. Paul Island: Alaska's Fur Seal Capital: The Discovery

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Commerce. Bureau of Fisheries. Division of Alaska Fisheries. 1913-7/1/1939, Public domain. Gerasim Pribilof discovered the islands in 1786, sent by Russian fur traders to find where northern fur seals bred. The seals' winter range was known, but their breeding grounds remained mysterious. Pribilof followed the migration and found St. George Island, then St. Paul - volc...

Read more: St. Paul Island on Qualla

Image: Department of Commerce. Bureau of Fisheries. Division of Alaska Fisheries. 1913-7/1/1939 | Public domain

St. Paul Island: Alaska's Fur Seal Capital: The Slaughter

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. At their peak, the Pribilof fur seal herds numbered over 4 million animals. Unrestricted harvesting reduced them to perhaps 200,000 by 1910. The United States, which purchased Alaska in 1867, continued commercial sealing under increasingly regulated conditions. The North Pacific ...

Read more: St. Paul Island on Qualla

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

St. Paul Island: Alaska's Fur Seal Capital: The Rookeries

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Northern fur seals are pelagic most of the year, ranging across the North Pacific. But they return to ancestral rookeries to breed - males arriving in May to establish territories, females arriving in June to give birth and mate. The beaches become chaotic concentrations of seals...

Read more: St. Paul Island on Qualla

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

St. Paul Island: Alaska's Fur Seal Capital: The Community

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. St. Paul village is home to about 400 people, mostly Aleut descendants of workers brought by the Russians. The community maintains connections to the seals that go beyond wildlife viewing - subsistence harvests of male seals are permitted for food, continuing a relationship that ...

Read more: St. Paul Island on Qualla

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

St. Paul Island: Alaska's Fur Seal Capital: Visiting St. Paul Island

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jim Greenhill from Arlington and Durango, USA, CC BY 2.0. St. Paul Island is accessible by scheduled air service from Anchorage (3 hours). The island has a small hotel and basic services; book accommodations well in advance for summer. Tours to fur seal rookeries are arranged through local guides - independent access to sensitive areas ...

Read more: St. Paul Island on Qualla

Image: Jim Greenhill from Arlington and Durango, USA | CC BY 2.0