Sitkalidak Fact Sheet

Even in an area renowned for outstanding natural resources, 71,300-acre Sitkalidak Island stands out as an extraordinarily rich wildlife area. The third largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Sitkalidak lies southeast of Kodiak Island across the narrow Sitkalidak Strait near the historic village of Old Harbor. The island's location and highly irregular coastline traps abundant food sources upwelling from the central Gulf of Alaska attracting large numbers of seabirds and marine mammals. The concentrations of herring around the island are among the highest in the archipelago, and the largest flock of common murres ever recorded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service was in Sitkalidak Strait.

The island also includes some of the foremost archaeological sites in Alaska, with numerous cultural resources of the Alutiiq native peoples dating back over 7,000 years. ALC is currently working to protect 71,300 acres of highly valuable ecological and cultural resources on Sitkalidak Island.

 Sitkalidak Map

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Project Activities

  • Work with Old Harbor Native Corporation and other partners to protect 71,300 acres
  • Conduct all due diligence and secure funding
  • Work with the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council to secure oil spill restoration funding
  • Work with US Fish & Wildlife Service to finalize conservation easement

Benefits

  • Conserves large landscape of some of the best habitat for wildlife species injured by the Exxon Valdez oil spill
  • Conserves sixteen wild salmon rivers
  • Includes some of the highest Pacific herring counts in the Kodiak archipelago, protection of which supports post-oil spill recovery of this important species
  • Preserves rich food source for common murres, marbled murrelets, pigeon guillemots, wintering seabirds, harlequin ducks, river otters, and harbor seals
  • Conserves significant fishing and hunting resources for subsistence and commercial use
  • Conserves habitat for high densities of Kodiak brown bears
  • Protects more than 70 archaeologically significant Alutiiq village sites, some of which are over 7,000 years old