May 5, 2006 – Unalaska, Alaska Options

[Patricia_Janes]

As other members of the science crew continue to trickle onto the island from various flights, those of us that landed yesterday take advantage of the down time and decided to tour the island. At just 80 square miles, the island isn’t very large. That makes for a pretty quick tour.

Unalaska is one the U.S.’s most productive commercial fishing ports. It processes millions of pounds of fish and seafood annually, including Alaskan king crab, herring, and Pollock. So one my top destinations is to check out the crab pots that the fishermen use to trap their catches.


For perspective, I stand next to a huge crab pot. Fishermen use these to capture Alaskan king crab.


Hundreds of crab pots line the shores of Dutch Harbor.

Next, it was on to the Church of the Holy Ascension, one of the oldest Russian Orthodox churches in North America. The church was constructed from 1894 to 1896 and was built on the site of earlier churches: the earliest being a chapel built in 1808.


The harsh weather at Dutch Harbor once took its toll on this old Russian Church, but community members recently raised money to restore it to its original state.

The island is also rich in wartime history: Unalaska was the first in a series of four Aleutian Islands that were attacked by the Japanese in 1942, followed by attacks on Adak, Attu, and Kiska. So we went to the WWII Memorial and saw an old bunker, along with a cemetery marking where some soldiers had fallen.