Gavriil Pribilof
Encyclopedia
Gavriil Loginovich Pribylov (died 1796) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n navigator
Navigator
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times. Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the Captain or aircraft Commander of estimated timing to...

 who discovered the Bering Sea
Bering Sea
The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....

 islands of St. George Island
St. George Island (Alaska)
St. George Island is one of the Pribilof Islands of the state of Alaska, USA, in the Bering Sea off the western coast of the state. The island has a land area of 90 km² and a population of about 100 people, all living in its only community, the city of St...

 and St. Paul Island in 1786 and 1787. The islands, and surrounding small islets, now bear his name, being known as the Pribilof Islands
Pribilof Islands
The Pribilof Islands are a group of four volcanic islands off the coast of mainland Alaska, in the Bering Sea, about north of Unalaska and 200 miles southwest of Cape Newenham. The Siberia coast is roughly northwest...

.

Pribylov was commander of the ship St. George (Sv. Georgii Pobedonosets), a sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....

 or galiot
Galiot
Galiots were types of ships from the Age of Sail.In the Mediterranean, galiots were a type of small galley, with one or two masts and about twenty oars, using both sails and oars for propulsion...

, when he discovered St. George Island on June 25, 1786, by following the sounds of barking northern fur seal
Northern Fur Seal
The Northern fur seal is an eared seal found along the north Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. It is the largest member of the fur seal subfamily and the only species in the genus Callorhinus.-Physical description:Northern fur seals have extreme sexual dimorphism, with males...

s. Pribylov's discovery successfully ended an active three-year search for the lucrative breeding grounds of fur seals by Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

n merchants. His expedition was funded jointly by Grigory Shelikhov
Grigory Shelikhov
Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov (Григорий Иванович Шелехов in Russian; (1747–July 20, 1795 (July 31, 1795 N.S.)) was a Russian seafarer and merchant born in Rylsk....

 and Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin. Shelikhov controlled a monopoly on Aleutian fur-trading activities granted by Empress Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

, but often took on partners to help fund his activities; the two men would later become rivals.
More than 20 of Pribylov's crew, which was of mixed Russian and Aleut descent, were left on St. George Island to hunt the seals. Both Russians and Aleuts stayed behind for the hunt. This played a key role in establishing the international hunting of northern fur seals, which continued in various forms until banned by international treaty in 1911
North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911
The North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911, formally known as the Convention between the United States and Other Powers Providing for the Preservation and Protection of Fur Seals, was an international treaty signed on July 7, 1911 designed to manage the commercial harvest of fur bearing mammals ...

, and nearly forced the seals to extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

.

A year later in 1787, Pribylov discovered St. Paul Island, approximately 50 miles to the north of St. George.

In truth, Pribylov did not actually discover the islands, as he was directed to their approximate location by the son of an Aleut chief. The then-uninhabited islands, known to the Aleuts as Amiq, were a fabled hunting ground in Aleut oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...

.
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