Post by grrraaahhh on Apr 21, 2011 14:40:01 GMT -9
From Metapopulations and Wildlife Conservation:
Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kuriles
Sakhalin and Hokkaido were connected to mainland Asia several times during the Pliocene and Pleistocene as sea levels varied (Figure 14.2). It is likely that both these islands were colonized around the same time. Because of their large numbers, it is unlikely that brown bear populations have ever gone extinct on either island. Sakhalin, with an estimated population of 1400 (Servheen 1990) in a 77,000-km2 area, is less than 10 km from the mainland of the Russian Far East at the closest point and migrant individuals are probably exchanged occasionally. Hokkaido, about 40 km from Sakhalin, is more isolated and may have received no immigrants since the last, Wisconsin, glaciation. Historically, however, Hokkaido may have supported as many brown bears as Sakhalin. Up to 3000 bears have been reported in recent times (Domico 1988), but Servheen (1990) considered the population size as unknown in 1989. The population is much reduced from historic levels due to increasing human alteration of habitat, and it appears to be fragmented into three subpopulations by human development (Servheen 1990). Hunting of brown bears on Hokkaido is currently allowed. The Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) is found on Hokkaido and on Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku islands farther south in Japan (Hanai 1985), so it is possible that the brown bear also used to occur farther south but has been extirpated.
Between Hokkaido and the Kamchatka peninsula the Kurile Islands form a classic stepping-stone array of smaller intermediate islands. Both Kamchatka, with 12,000 to 14,000 brown bears (Dunishenko 1987) in a 472,000-km2 area (Revenko 1996), and Hokkaido have historically had large brown bear populations. Recent legal and illegal hunting abetted by the struggling Russian economy and the demand for bear gallbladders has markedly reduced the Kamchatka brown bear population (Revenko 1996). The larger Kurile Islands adjacent to either of these "mainlands" have resident bear populations that may periodically go extinct and then become recolonized. These larger islands are separated from each other and from the "mainlands" by about 25 km. A total of 700 brown bears is estimated on the larger Kurile Islands (Dunishenko 1987). Current bear populations are probably restricted to islands that are large enough to support salmon populations that spawn in freshwater streams (Y. Zhuravlev, Russian Academy of Science, Vladivostok, personal communication, 1994). The smaller islands in the center of the chain do not support resident bear populations.
Although it is possible that bears visit the nearer of these small islands, it is unlikely that migrant bears would travel the length of the chain. During glacial episodes, however, when these islands were larger and less distant, or connected as a peninsula, brown bears from Kamchatka could well have reached Hokkaido. There is a slight possibility of exchange in recent times between Sakhalin and Hokkaido. Recent research using minisatellite DNA fingerprinting of brown bears on Hokkaido reveals little genetic diversity (Tsu-ruga et al. 1994a, 1994£), but the interpretation of these results is difficult because, using a variety of minisatellite markers, grizzly bears exhibit very little variability (Craighead 1994). Additional genetic studies of these islands should reveal an interesting history and the current dynamics of this metapopulation.
Figure 14.2. Map of Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kurile Islands showing historic brown bear distribution. Stippled areas depict densities greater than 70 bears per 1000 km2. After M. Kretchmar, Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Magadan, Russia (personal communication).
Literature Link: books.google.com/books?id=qEp1lbuZHwAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Metapopulations+and+wildlife+conservation&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
MAPS
Sakhalin Island
Sakhalin (Russian: Сахали́н, pronounced [səxɐˈlʲin]; Japanese: Karafuto (樺太?) or Saharin (サハリン?)), also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Sakhalin Ainu, Oroks, and Nivkhs. Most Ainu relocated to Hokkaidō when Japanese were expelled from the island in 1949.Sakhalin was claimed by both Russia and Japan in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, which led to bitter disputes between the two countries over the control of the island.
The European names derived from misinterpretation of a Manchu name sahaliyan ula angga hada (peak of the mouth of Amur River). Sahaliyan means black in Manchu and refers to the Amur River (sahaliyan ula). Its Japanese name, Karafuto (樺太?) comes from Ainu Kamuy-Kara-Puto-Ya-Mosir (Kara Puto), which means "God of mouth of water land". The name was used by the Japanese during their possession of its southern part (1905–1945).
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands (pronounced /ˈkʊərɪl, ˈkjʊərɪl/ or /kjʊˈriːl/; Russian: Кури́льские острова́, Kuril'skie ostrova, pronounced [kuˈrʲilʲskʲiɪe əstrʌˈva]) or Kurile Islands in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, is a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately 1,300 km (810 mi) northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks.
All of the islands are under Russian jurisdiction, although the southernmost four are claimed by Japan as part of its territory. (See Kuril Islands dispute.)
Iturup Island
Iturup (Russian: Итуру́п; Ainu: エトゥオロプシリ, Etuworop-sir; Japanese: 択捉島, Etorofu-tō) is the largest island of the South Kuril Islands. It is the northernmost island in the southern Kuril islands, and though it is presently controlled by Russia, Japan also claims this island (see Kuril Islands dispute). It was until WWII owned by Japan, but Russia forced the Japanese living there to leave.
Iturup is located near the southern end of the Kuril chain, between Kunashir (19 km to the SW) and Urup (37 km to the NE). The town of Kurilsk, administrative center of Kurilsky District, is located roughly midway along its western shore.
* Area - 3,139 km²
* Length - 200 km
* Width - 7–27 km
The strait between Iturup and Urup is known as the Vries Strait, after Dutch explorer Maarten Gerritsz Vries, the first recorded European to explore the area.
Geography
Iturup consists of volcanic massifs and mountain ridges. A series of a dozen volcanoes running NE to SW form the backbone of the island, the highest being Stokap (1,634 m) in the central part of Iturup. The shores of the island are high and abrupt. The vegetation mostly consists of spruce, larch, pine, fir, and mixed deciduous forests with alder, lianas and Kuril bamboo underbrush. The mountains are covered with birch and Siberian Dwarf Pine scrub, herbaceous flowers or bare rocks.
Kunashir Island
Kunashir Island (Russian: Кунаши́р; Japanese: 国後島, Kunashiri), meaning Black Island in Ainu, is the southernmost island of the Kuril Islands, which are controlled by Russia and claimed by Japan (see Kuril Islands dispute).
It lies between the straits of Kunashir, Catherine, Izmena, and South Kuril. Kunashir is visible from the nearby Japanese island of Hokkaidō from which it is separated by the Nemuro Strait.
* Area: 1,490 km²
* Length: 123 km
* Width: 4–30 km
Kunashir is formed by four volcanoes which were separate islands but have since joined together by low-lying areas with lakes and hot springs. All these volcanoes are still active: Tyatya (1,819 m), Smirnov, Mendeleev (Ruasu Dake), and Golovnin).
The island is formed with the volcanic and crystalline rocks. The climate is of monsoon type. The vegetation mostly consists of spruce, pine, fir, and mixed deciduous forests with lianas and Kuril bamboo underbrush. The mountains are covered with birch and Siberian Dwarf Pine scrub, herbaceous flowers or bare rocks.
Tree cores of century-old oaks (Quercus crispula) were found in July 2001 on Kunashir Island.
The primary economic activity is fishery and fishing industry. The island has a port next to Yuzhno-Kurilsk, administrative center of Yuzhno-Kurilsky District and the island's main settlement. Administratively this island belongs to the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Federation.
Paramushir Island
Paramushir (Russian: Парамушир) or Paramushiru, from the Ainu for "broad island") is a Russian island in the Kuril Island chain. At 100 km in length an average around 20 km across and with an area of 2,053 km², it is the largest of the Northern Group of islands and second only to Iturup in area. It is separated from Shumshu by the very narrow second Kuril strait in the northeast (2.5 km), from Antsiferov Island by the Luzhina strait (15 km) to the southwest, from Atlasov Island in the northwest by 20 km, and from Onnekotan Island in the south by the 40 km wide fourth Kuril strait. Its northern tip is 39 km from Cape Lopatka at the southern tip of the Kamchatka peninsula.
Paramushir belongs to the Severo-Kurilsky district of the Sakhalin Oblast. Severo-Kurilsk (population: 2592 in 2002 census, 5180 in the 1989 census), the administrative center of the Severo-Kurilsky district, is the only permanently populated settlement on Paramashir island. The town is the largest settlement on all the Kuril Islands, however it is followed closely by Kurilsk on Iturup (pop. approxuimately 2200 in 2005). Other villages that once lined the coast of Paramushir are now mainly ghost towns. This is due in part to the crash of the formerly lucrative herring fishery, to the extremely destructive Kamchatka peninsula tsunami of 1952, which claimed an estimated 2300 lives, and general economic hardships in the more remote reaches of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Geography and natural history
Geologically, Paramushir is a continuous chain of 23 volcanoes. At least five of them are active: Chikurachki (1,816m), Fuss Peak (1,772m), Tatarinova, Karpinsky Group (1,345m), and Ebeko (1,156m).
Chikurachki, the highest peak on Paramushir, erupted in 2003, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008. During the most recent eruption in August 2008, the volcanic ash reached the town of Severo-Kurilsk located 60km north-east. The previous eruption took place on March 4, 2007, when a 1.5 km high plume of ash was emitted that trailed for several hundred kilometers into the neighboring waters.
Paramushir has a sub-arctic climate strongly modulated by the cooling effects of the North Pacific Oyashio Current. The arboreal flora of Paramushir is consequently limited to dense, stunted copses of Siberian dwarf pine and shrubby alder. The alpine tundra which dominates the landscape produces plentiful edible mushrooms and berries, especially lingonberry, Arctic raspberry, whortleberry and crowberry. Red fox, Arctic hare and ermine are notably abundant and hunted by the inhabitants. The island also supports a population of grizzly bears. The straits between Paramushir and Shumshu island support a notably dense population of sea otters and harbor seals are similarly common.
Several species of charr and Pacific salmon spawn in its rivers, notably in the Tukharka river, at 20 km the longest river on the island.
Shantar Islands
The Shantar Islands (Острова Шантарские; Ostrova Shantarskiye) are a group of fifteen islands that lie in Uda Bay, in the southwestern zone of the Sea of Okhotsk. These islands are located close to the shores of the Siberian mainland. Most islands have rugged cliffs, but they are of moderate height; the highest point in the island group is 720 metres.
The largest island in the Shantar group is Bolshoy Shantar Island (1790 km2). It is about 72 km in length and 49 km in width. It has a large brackish lake (Lake Bol'shoe) in its northern end which is connected to the sea through a narrow passage. Smelts (Hypomesus japonicus) and (H. olidus) are found on this lake.
Other islands include Feklistova Island (372 km2), Maly Shantar Island, (100 km2), Prokofyeva, Sakharnaya Golova, Belichiy, Kusova, Ptichiy, Utichiy, Yuzhnyy and finally Medvezhiy, which lies very close to the coast.
Administratively this island group belongs to the Khabarovsk Krai of the Russian Federation.
Ecology
There is no permanent population on the Shantar Islands, but they are often visited by commercial fishermen who use them as a base. Other economic activities undertaken on these islands are fur hunting and trapping as well as lumbering, which in the past were often done illegally. There are spruce forests on the largest islands. Other trees in the island taiga are the Siberian spruce, the Dahurian larch and the mountain pine.
Although there is little evidence of human impact, the Shantar island ecosystem is under threat. There many endangered birds in these islands, including the Blakiston's Fish-owl, osprey, black stork, red-necked grebe, gyrfalcon, solitary snipe, Steller's sea eagle and the Siberian Grouse.
The Kamchatka brown bear (Ursus arctos beringianus), sable and marten are common on the Shantar Islands.
The waters around these coastal islands are frozen for about eight months on a yearly average, so that they are merged with the mailand most of the year. Bearded seals, Bowhead whales and western gray whales are common in the waters off the islands.
One of the most severe threats to the environment of the Shantar Islands is a proposed tidal hydroelectric power station, which is currently on hold for lack of funds.
General island information & material source: Wikipedia
Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kuriles
Sakhalin and Hokkaido were connected to mainland Asia several times during the Pliocene and Pleistocene as sea levels varied (Figure 14.2). It is likely that both these islands were colonized around the same time. Because of their large numbers, it is unlikely that brown bear populations have ever gone extinct on either island. Sakhalin, with an estimated population of 1400 (Servheen 1990) in a 77,000-km2 area, is less than 10 km from the mainland of the Russian Far East at the closest point and migrant individuals are probably exchanged occasionally. Hokkaido, about 40 km from Sakhalin, is more isolated and may have received no immigrants since the last, Wisconsin, glaciation. Historically, however, Hokkaido may have supported as many brown bears as Sakhalin. Up to 3000 bears have been reported in recent times (Domico 1988), but Servheen (1990) considered the population size as unknown in 1989. The population is much reduced from historic levels due to increasing human alteration of habitat, and it appears to be fragmented into three subpopulations by human development (Servheen 1990). Hunting of brown bears on Hokkaido is currently allowed. The Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) is found on Hokkaido and on Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku islands farther south in Japan (Hanai 1985), so it is possible that the brown bear also used to occur farther south but has been extirpated.
Between Hokkaido and the Kamchatka peninsula the Kurile Islands form a classic stepping-stone array of smaller intermediate islands. Both Kamchatka, with 12,000 to 14,000 brown bears (Dunishenko 1987) in a 472,000-km2 area (Revenko 1996), and Hokkaido have historically had large brown bear populations. Recent legal and illegal hunting abetted by the struggling Russian economy and the demand for bear gallbladders has markedly reduced the Kamchatka brown bear population (Revenko 1996). The larger Kurile Islands adjacent to either of these "mainlands" have resident bear populations that may periodically go extinct and then become recolonized. These larger islands are separated from each other and from the "mainlands" by about 25 km. A total of 700 brown bears is estimated on the larger Kurile Islands (Dunishenko 1987). Current bear populations are probably restricted to islands that are large enough to support salmon populations that spawn in freshwater streams (Y. Zhuravlev, Russian Academy of Science, Vladivostok, personal communication, 1994). The smaller islands in the center of the chain do not support resident bear populations.
Although it is possible that bears visit the nearer of these small islands, it is unlikely that migrant bears would travel the length of the chain. During glacial episodes, however, when these islands were larger and less distant, or connected as a peninsula, brown bears from Kamchatka could well have reached Hokkaido. There is a slight possibility of exchange in recent times between Sakhalin and Hokkaido. Recent research using minisatellite DNA fingerprinting of brown bears on Hokkaido reveals little genetic diversity (Tsu-ruga et al. 1994a, 1994£), but the interpretation of these results is difficult because, using a variety of minisatellite markers, grizzly bears exhibit very little variability (Craighead 1994). Additional genetic studies of these islands should reveal an interesting history and the current dynamics of this metapopulation.
Figure 14.2. Map of Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kurile Islands showing historic brown bear distribution. Stippled areas depict densities greater than 70 bears per 1000 km2. After M. Kretchmar, Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Magadan, Russia (personal communication).
Literature Link: books.google.com/books?id=qEp1lbuZHwAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Metapopulations+and+wildlife+conservation&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
MAPS
Sakhalin Island
Sakhalin (Russian: Сахали́н, pronounced [səxɐˈlʲin]; Japanese: Karafuto (樺太?) or Saharin (サハリン?)), also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Sakhalin Ainu, Oroks, and Nivkhs. Most Ainu relocated to Hokkaidō when Japanese were expelled from the island in 1949.Sakhalin was claimed by both Russia and Japan in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, which led to bitter disputes between the two countries over the control of the island.
The European names derived from misinterpretation of a Manchu name sahaliyan ula angga hada (peak of the mouth of Amur River). Sahaliyan means black in Manchu and refers to the Amur River (sahaliyan ula). Its Japanese name, Karafuto (樺太?) comes from Ainu Kamuy-Kara-Puto-Ya-Mosir (Kara Puto), which means "God of mouth of water land". The name was used by the Japanese during their possession of its southern part (1905–1945).
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands (pronounced /ˈkʊərɪl, ˈkjʊərɪl/ or /kjʊˈriːl/; Russian: Кури́льские острова́, Kuril'skie ostrova, pronounced [kuˈrʲilʲskʲiɪe əstrʌˈva]) or Kurile Islands in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, is a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately 1,300 km (810 mi) northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks.
All of the islands are under Russian jurisdiction, although the southernmost four are claimed by Japan as part of its territory. (See Kuril Islands dispute.)
Iturup Island
Iturup (Russian: Итуру́п; Ainu: エトゥオロプシリ, Etuworop-sir; Japanese: 択捉島, Etorofu-tō) is the largest island of the South Kuril Islands. It is the northernmost island in the southern Kuril islands, and though it is presently controlled by Russia, Japan also claims this island (see Kuril Islands dispute). It was until WWII owned by Japan, but Russia forced the Japanese living there to leave.
Iturup is located near the southern end of the Kuril chain, between Kunashir (19 km to the SW) and Urup (37 km to the NE). The town of Kurilsk, administrative center of Kurilsky District, is located roughly midway along its western shore.
* Area - 3,139 km²
* Length - 200 km
* Width - 7–27 km
The strait between Iturup and Urup is known as the Vries Strait, after Dutch explorer Maarten Gerritsz Vries, the first recorded European to explore the area.
Geography
Iturup consists of volcanic massifs and mountain ridges. A series of a dozen volcanoes running NE to SW form the backbone of the island, the highest being Stokap (1,634 m) in the central part of Iturup. The shores of the island are high and abrupt. The vegetation mostly consists of spruce, larch, pine, fir, and mixed deciduous forests with alder, lianas and Kuril bamboo underbrush. The mountains are covered with birch and Siberian Dwarf Pine scrub, herbaceous flowers or bare rocks.
Kunashir Island
Kunashir Island (Russian: Кунаши́р; Japanese: 国後島, Kunashiri), meaning Black Island in Ainu, is the southernmost island of the Kuril Islands, which are controlled by Russia and claimed by Japan (see Kuril Islands dispute).
It lies between the straits of Kunashir, Catherine, Izmena, and South Kuril. Kunashir is visible from the nearby Japanese island of Hokkaidō from which it is separated by the Nemuro Strait.
* Area: 1,490 km²
* Length: 123 km
* Width: 4–30 km
Kunashir is formed by four volcanoes which were separate islands but have since joined together by low-lying areas with lakes and hot springs. All these volcanoes are still active: Tyatya (1,819 m), Smirnov, Mendeleev (Ruasu Dake), and Golovnin).
The island is formed with the volcanic and crystalline rocks. The climate is of monsoon type. The vegetation mostly consists of spruce, pine, fir, and mixed deciduous forests with lianas and Kuril bamboo underbrush. The mountains are covered with birch and Siberian Dwarf Pine scrub, herbaceous flowers or bare rocks.
Tree cores of century-old oaks (Quercus crispula) were found in July 2001 on Kunashir Island.
The primary economic activity is fishery and fishing industry. The island has a port next to Yuzhno-Kurilsk, administrative center of Yuzhno-Kurilsky District and the island's main settlement. Administratively this island belongs to the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Federation.
Paramushir Island
Paramushir (Russian: Парамушир) or Paramushiru, from the Ainu for "broad island") is a Russian island in the Kuril Island chain. At 100 km in length an average around 20 km across and with an area of 2,053 km², it is the largest of the Northern Group of islands and second only to Iturup in area. It is separated from Shumshu by the very narrow second Kuril strait in the northeast (2.5 km), from Antsiferov Island by the Luzhina strait (15 km) to the southwest, from Atlasov Island in the northwest by 20 km, and from Onnekotan Island in the south by the 40 km wide fourth Kuril strait. Its northern tip is 39 km from Cape Lopatka at the southern tip of the Kamchatka peninsula.
Paramushir belongs to the Severo-Kurilsky district of the Sakhalin Oblast. Severo-Kurilsk (population: 2592 in 2002 census, 5180 in the 1989 census), the administrative center of the Severo-Kurilsky district, is the only permanently populated settlement on Paramashir island. The town is the largest settlement on all the Kuril Islands, however it is followed closely by Kurilsk on Iturup (pop. approxuimately 2200 in 2005). Other villages that once lined the coast of Paramushir are now mainly ghost towns. This is due in part to the crash of the formerly lucrative herring fishery, to the extremely destructive Kamchatka peninsula tsunami of 1952, which claimed an estimated 2300 lives, and general economic hardships in the more remote reaches of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Geography and natural history
Geologically, Paramushir is a continuous chain of 23 volcanoes. At least five of them are active: Chikurachki (1,816m), Fuss Peak (1,772m), Tatarinova, Karpinsky Group (1,345m), and Ebeko (1,156m).
Chikurachki, the highest peak on Paramushir, erupted in 2003, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008. During the most recent eruption in August 2008, the volcanic ash reached the town of Severo-Kurilsk located 60km north-east. The previous eruption took place on March 4, 2007, when a 1.5 km high plume of ash was emitted that trailed for several hundred kilometers into the neighboring waters.
Paramushir has a sub-arctic climate strongly modulated by the cooling effects of the North Pacific Oyashio Current. The arboreal flora of Paramushir is consequently limited to dense, stunted copses of Siberian dwarf pine and shrubby alder. The alpine tundra which dominates the landscape produces plentiful edible mushrooms and berries, especially lingonberry, Arctic raspberry, whortleberry and crowberry. Red fox, Arctic hare and ermine are notably abundant and hunted by the inhabitants. The island also supports a population of grizzly bears. The straits between Paramushir and Shumshu island support a notably dense population of sea otters and harbor seals are similarly common.
Several species of charr and Pacific salmon spawn in its rivers, notably in the Tukharka river, at 20 km the longest river on the island.
Shantar Islands
The Shantar Islands (Острова Шантарские; Ostrova Shantarskiye) are a group of fifteen islands that lie in Uda Bay, in the southwestern zone of the Sea of Okhotsk. These islands are located close to the shores of the Siberian mainland. Most islands have rugged cliffs, but they are of moderate height; the highest point in the island group is 720 metres.
The largest island in the Shantar group is Bolshoy Shantar Island (1790 km2). It is about 72 km in length and 49 km in width. It has a large brackish lake (Lake Bol'shoe) in its northern end which is connected to the sea through a narrow passage. Smelts (Hypomesus japonicus) and (H. olidus) are found on this lake.
Other islands include Feklistova Island (372 km2), Maly Shantar Island, (100 km2), Prokofyeva, Sakharnaya Golova, Belichiy, Kusova, Ptichiy, Utichiy, Yuzhnyy and finally Medvezhiy, which lies very close to the coast.
Administratively this island group belongs to the Khabarovsk Krai of the Russian Federation.
Ecology
There is no permanent population on the Shantar Islands, but they are often visited by commercial fishermen who use them as a base. Other economic activities undertaken on these islands are fur hunting and trapping as well as lumbering, which in the past were often done illegally. There are spruce forests on the largest islands. Other trees in the island taiga are the Siberian spruce, the Dahurian larch and the mountain pine.
Although there is little evidence of human impact, the Shantar island ecosystem is under threat. There many endangered birds in these islands, including the Blakiston's Fish-owl, osprey, black stork, red-necked grebe, gyrfalcon, solitary snipe, Steller's sea eagle and the Siberian Grouse.
The Kamchatka brown bear (Ursus arctos beringianus), sable and marten are common on the Shantar Islands.
The waters around these coastal islands are frozen for about eight months on a yearly average, so that they are merged with the mailand most of the year. Bearded seals, Bowhead whales and western gray whales are common in the waters off the islands.
One of the most severe threats to the environment of the Shantar Islands is a proposed tidal hydroelectric power station, which is currently on hold for lack of funds.
General island information & material source: Wikipedia
