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Island Culture Today No natural harbors exist on the Pribilof Islands. For a long time, baidarras, or skin boats, were the principal means for lightering cargo and persons to the islands. On St. Paul, the Americans developed landings at East Landing, near Black Bluffs, and West Landing, along Village Cove. On St. George, crude landings took place near the current village. During frequently unsettled, windy conditions, landings also took place in the island’s lee at Garden Cove and Zapadni. By 1986, St. Paul had a 750-foot breakwater and a 200-foot dock (House of Representatives 1999; USACE 2002). A project completed in 1990 extended the breakwater to 1,800 feet and added a 970-foot detached breakwater (USACE 2002), thereby giving the community a semi-protected harbor. In 2003, the USACE awarded a three-year contract to improve the St. Paul Island harbor. The project included emergency breakwater repair and improvements, dredging, and dredged material disposal (USACE 2002; USACE 2004). The dredging project included improvements to the entrance channel at -32 feet mean lower low water; the maneuvering area was dredged to a twenty-foot depth; and the channel was made leading into the Salt Lagoon to increase the water exchange and environmental quality for wildlife. Construction activities included a small breakwater within the inner harbor; a spending beach on the lee side of the detached breakwater; three offshore reefs or underwater groins parallel to the existing main breakwater to dissipate the energy of large ocean swells. Construction and dredging also made inroads for the development of a small boat harbor pending resolution of land use issues and funding for a small breakwater. During 2007, the small boat harbor and breakwater had yet to be developed, although the community resolved to provide its share of the necessary funds. St. George Island’s Zapadni Bay Harbor was completed at the end of 1993.36 Additional work is required to address the issues of rock pinnacles in the entrance channel and large waves entering the inner harbor areas, making ingress/egress into the harbor nearly impossible during moderate wave conditions (USACE 2004). |
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NOAA created this product in partial fulfillment
of a memorandum of agreement between it and the Alaska State Historic
Preservation Officer. |
