The Pribilof Islands

Seventy-three years of federal administration of the Pribi lof Islands came to an abrupt end in October 1983 when the U.S. Congress voted to terminate the mandate of the Pribilof Islands Pro gram. To ease the ensuing transition to home rule, the U.S. Congress established a $20 million Pribilof Islands Trust. Yet reasonable esti mates indicate that most of this money will go to improve the infra structure of the islands and to rehabilitate the aging power plant, sew age systems and housing stock of the local communities to meet state codes. The Trust is wholly inadequate to launch the Pribilof communi ties safely on the road toward economic self-sufficiency. Motivated in part by the campaign to end the commercial harvest of northern fur seals on the Pribilof Islands, the recent federal action may also stimu late economic development, proving more harmful to the fur seal pop ulation than a modest and carefully controlled commercial harvest. The emergence of a sizeable commercial fishery based on the Pribilof Islands, for example, could easily reduce the carrying capacity of the marine ecosystem for fur seals (as well as for other marine mammals), produce a substantial incidental kill of fur seals through entanglement in fishing nets and make the coastal areas of the islands less hospitable to fur seals as rookeries. Resume: Soixante-treize ans d'administration federate des iles Pribi lof se sont soudainement termines quand en octobre 1983, le Congres des Etats-Unis a vote pour discontinuer le mandat du ?Pribilof Island Program?. Pour faciliter cette transition a un gouvernement local, le Congres americain a etabli une fiducie de 20 $ million, la ?Pribilof Island Trust?. Pourtant, on estime que la plupart de cet argent sera destinee a l'amelioration de 1'infrastructure des iles et a la rehabilita tion de la vieille centrale d'energie, du systeme d'eaux et d'egouts et des habitations des communautes locales, afin de conformer aux codes d'etat. La fiducie est entierement inadequate pour un depart au re nouvellement economique dont les communautes des iles auront besoin pour devenir autonomes. Anthropologica XXIX (1987) 149-167

Geography · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Coastal and Marine Management

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