Our port notes state. The volcanic Aleutian Islands stretch between the United States and Russia in the Bering Sea. The archipelago’s largest community goes by two names—Unalaska and Dutch Harbor—though you may hear really old-time Aleut speakers say “Ounalashka” too. Want to sound like one of the fishing port’s 4,300-odd residents? Just stick with “Dutch.”
In the easternmost arc—the Fox Island subgroup—this flourishing town depends more on the fish-processing industry than on tourism. In fact, Dutch Harbour netted 762 million pounds in 2014, maintaining its “most seafood landed” status for the 18th consecutive year. But visitors may be more familiar with its fame from Deadliest Catch, a TV series about the brutal struggle to harvest Alaskan king crabs—a task often called the world’s most dangerous job.
While its stark natural beauty is the main draw, Dutch woos tourists with the oldest Russian-Orthodox cruciform church in North America (note the darkened icons, damaged while locals were exiled to WWII internment camps). Learn more about the Aleutians’ war—Japanese forces invaded the area, making it the only occupied American soil during the conflict—at the National Historic Area.
For simplicity I just copied the HAL online description, this is the first time I was able to use this feature from the Navigator site, pretty cool. This is our second visit here to this remote community. In 2014 we hiked up Bunker Hill which was pretty much a full day adventure so this time we stayed in town taking the shuttle to the Aleutian Museum and enjoying the museum before strolling back to the tender dock and back to the ship. It was a beautiful overcast day with a temperature of about 12 Celsius with only very little rain. Very picturesque views as we strolled back including a very curious Bald Eagle perched on a lamp post.
Some pics of the day, hope you enjoy…
The Aleutian Museum
The deadliest catch…
King Crab Pots.
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