Georg Wilhelm Steller spent nine months stranded on an island in the Bering Sea in 1741. If Steller had followed the fate of the expedition’s leader, Vitus Bering, and died of cold, hunger, or scurvy, we may today know far less about much of the wildlife on what became Bering Island. In particular, were it not for the time Steller spent observing and eating a large marine mammal during his time on… Read More
Its March 2016. I’m writing this from Kugaaruk, a community of about 800 people in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot Region. Kugaaruk is on the southeast side of Pelly Bay, which at its north end opens up into the Gulf of Boothia, in the Canadian Arctic. The community itself is right at the mouth of the wide Kugaaruk River and is surrounded by an amazing topography of rocky hills and islands. Right now, the ice… Read More