St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska

Another night and most of today plowing through very rough seas towards the Aleutian Islands. 

This afternoon, we anchored off St. Paul Island which is inhabited by some 500 or so Aleuts, making it the largest Aleut community in the US.  This place is known for its many fur seals as well as a summer home for hundreds of thousands of breeding seabirds.  Harvesting Snow Crabs for export has been the economic mainstay of the community for many years, though a recent crash in the crab population caused the fishery to close in 2022 -- something of great concern to the residents here.

Although they are taking Zodiacs ashore, we decided to err on the side of caution, as there are still six-foot swells which makes getting on and off the Zodiacs a bit of a challenge -- especially with a sore knee!