Aleutian Islands

We're, we love being this..." There were others that would tell me, and to, to quote, "Don't let the door hit your behind on the way out." They were not happy at all, independently of being told to not be happy.

So it was a real mix, and it was a struggle, and I took, I, I took damage from being in, in s- situations that were as stressful as that because I could imagine that my next assignment was going to be three weeks from then for a two-year unaccompanied assignment to the Aleutian Islands or something.

[laughs]

That's, it was a very realistic scenario in my head based on what was happening at that time.

Um, so we'll see what this is all about.

Okay, now coming in at number 10, deep in the Aleutian Islands, the abandoned World War II military base on Adak Island is an eerie ghost town.

Visitors and remaining personnel report seeing spectral shadow-like World War II infantrymen pacing empty tundra roads, uh, in full combat gear.

Mm.

Right.

Like, it's so saturated with energy.

And, you know, a place like this, you know, the Aleutian Islands are pretty far away from everything.

Yeah.

I go to places that people don't usually go.

So one place I went that was really fascinating was the, we could call it the western most and most remote island in the United States, the Aleutian Island chain called Adak.

And there's twice a week flight on Alaska Airlines there.

It's very expensive, but you can book it very cheaply with points on Alaska Airlines.

And you're right, saying-- We-- Uh, yeah.

It, it gets, um, sent to our shoreside plant, and I think we, uh, Big Bold Health has access to the only pharmaceutical grade plant in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, out on the, uh, Aleutian Islands.

Uh, my, my partner owns the fishing boats.

And so, uh, they're brought directly and frozen to our shoreside plant.

Now here's where it gets interesting, because the war came and changed everything.

After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese moved on the Aleutian Chain.

They occupied Attu and Kiska, two islands at the far western end of the chain, and the army suddenly needed to project military force 2,000 miles down a string of volcanic islands in conditions that made the Alaska interior look hospitable by comparison.

The Aleutians are genuinely brutal.

Williwaws come out of nothing, violent downdraft winds that can roll a parked airplane before you have time to react.

Fog so thick you can't see from the cockpit to the engine cowl.

The version that wants to kill you in a dozen different ways before lunch.

Reeve was at the top of that list.

The number of fur seals that resort to these two islands, St. Paul and St. George, during the breeding season is estimated at from three to four million, and there seems to be no falling off in numbers since the Alaska Commercial Company began operations here.

Only young males are killed by the company, but many of both sexes are taken far from here among the Aleutian Islands and around the shores of Vancouver Island and the outermost of the Alexander Archipelago.

No one knows certainly whence they come or whither they go, but inasmuch as they make their appearance every year about the shores of the Aleutian Islands shortly after their disappearance from St. Paul and St. George, and then later to the southward toward the coast of British Columbia, it is supposed that they are the same animals and that they thus make journeys every year of a thousand miles or more and return to their birthplaces like shoals of salmon.

They begin to appear on the breeding grounds about the first of June.

These are old males who at once take up their stations on high ground a short distance from the shore and keep possession of their places while they await the coming of the pregnant females who arrive about a month later, accompanied by the younger members of the community.

As today, so from time immemorial canoes have crossed for trade or mere pleasure, steering by the swell of the sea when out of sight of land.

As to crossing on the ice, the natives tell me that they frequently go with their dog sleds from the Siberian side to the Diomedes, those halfway houses along the route, but seldom or never from the Diomedes to the American side, on account of the movements of the ice.

But though both means of communication, assumed to account for distribution as it is found to exist today, were left out, land communication in any case undoubtedly existed just previous to the glacial period as far south as the Aleutian Islands and northward beyond the mouth of the strait.

The non-profit running the long-standing contest says Backpack was crowned the champion after more than 100,000 votes.

The fat bear competition celebrates the resilience of the 2,200 crown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state's southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands.

Finally, in sport and in football news, Australia's A-League teams are taking a wait-and-see approach to the news that Manchester City are facing sanctions after being found guilty of a $1.7 billion scheme to circumvent the Premier League's financial rules.

A-League's team Melbourne City has been owned by City Football Group since 2014, with the club's vice-chairman Simon Pearce sitting on the board of directors for Manchester City.