Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge

Alaska Maritime consists of more than 2,400 islands, headlands, rocks, islets, spires and reefs of the Alaskan coast. The refuge stretches from Cape Lisburne on the Chukchi Sea to the tip of the Aleutians and eastward past the Kenai Peninsula to Forrester Island on the border of British Columbia. The 4.5-million-acre refuge is a spectacular blend of tundra, rain forest, cliffs, volcanoes, beaches, lakes, and streams. Most of the refuge (2.64 million acres) is wilderness.

Alaska Maritime is synonymous with sea birds—millions of them. About 75 percent of Alaska's marine birds (15 to 30 million birds among 55 species) use the refuge. They congregate in "bird cities" or colonies along the coast. Each species has a specialized nesting site (rock ledge, crevice, boulder rubble, pinnacle, or burrow), an adaptation that allows many birds to use a small area of land. The refuge has the most diverse wildlife species of all the refuges in Alaska including thousands of sea lions, seals, walrus and sea otters.

VISITOR USE: Visitor activities include wildlife observation (birds and marine mammals), photography, sea kayaking, and backpacking. Bird-watching is popular throughout the refuge including the Pribilofs, the Chiswell Islands out of Seward, St. Lazaria Island out of Sitka, from the state ferry Tustumena, and the Aleutian Islands. The refuge's new Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center is located at refuge headquarters in Homer. This 37,000-square-foot facility offers trails, state-of-the-art exhibits, a refuge film, daily naturalist programs in summer, and a discovery lab. Visit the refuge and the visitor center Web sites for a schedule of events and more information: http://alaskamaritime.fws.gov and www.islandsandocean.org.