V

Vitus Bering

When the French and English were trying to be the strongest in the fur trade in the eastern and central subarctic, the Danish explorer, Vitus Bering, sailed under the Russian flag. He explored Alaska. When he went there, he learned that the Aleutian waters were a very rich source of fur bearing mammals and that an Alaskan tribe, called Aleut, were excellent hunters. The sea otter pelts that members of Bering's crew took back to Russia brought the Russian fur traders. All this took place in 1741.

Ivory Gulls

In the whole world, there are about 108 different kinds of species of birds. One of them is the Ivory Gull. There are tons and tons of them. The Ivory Gull migrates. Adult Ivory Gulls are white with black spots and babies are just white. Ivory Gulls are heavy bodied and have long wings. It is almost pigon shaped. The Ivory Gull nests on cliff ledges where people don't live in the Arctic islands. They live in groups varying in size from a handful to several hundred pairs. When the Ivory Gull walks, its short feet seems like it's rolling.

Exxon Valdez

Exxon Valdez is the name of an oil tanker. This tanker, while it was in the waters of Prince William Sound, Alaska, ran into a reef. This caused a major oil spill around that area. This incident happened in March 1989. This caused a big problem. Because of this accident, sea animals as well as birds died. It took a long time for them to clean this oil spill. What if another accident like this happened? What if the pipeline, which runs through Alaska breaks?That will be horrible! More animals will die!!!!!