Marmot Island

Marmot Island in Detail.

3 mi. E of Afognak I., N of Kodiak I.

Marmot Island is a large island to the east of Kodiak Island separated by Marmot Strait. It lies 34 miles northeast of the town of Kodiak.

Pigs: In 1984 resident of the island, Reed Oswalt, thought it a good idea to introduce wild boar on the local ecology. Beginning with two males and six females, by the end of the first year they had expanded across the island, by the end of three it was obvious they were destroying vegetation. Fish and Game and NPS tried to eliminate the boars, but were not very successful. Because the state considers the pigs deleterious exotic wildlife, wild boar can be hunted year-round with only a hunting license. No tags required and no bag limit. While the pigs are still open for hunting, a wild boar has not been sighted on the island since 1998. In 2008 a survey was conducted and no activity of the animals was found.

Steller sea lions: Before the 1970s, Marmot Island was one of the largest Steller sea lion rookeries in Alaska. Since then the populations on the island have greatly declined and four of the main rookeries have turned to haul-outs or abandoned altogether. During 1987-88 751 sea lions were tagged on Marmot Island. Over half of the sea lion resightings up to 1994 were on or within the vicinity of Marmot Island. One was found some 1,700km away at Loretta Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Translation by U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) of "Os(trov) Yevrashickey," from the siberian "Yevrashka," published by Lieutenant Sarichev (1826, map 5), Imperial Russian Navy (IRN). Otto von Kotzebue (in Baker, 1906, p. 426) says "An animal in may respects similar to the squirrel; but it is much larger and lives in the earth; it is called in Siberia 'Gewraschka'. The Americans call it 'Tschikschi' (probably from the Eskimo 'Sikrik' or 'Siksik' meaning 'ground squirrel')". "In 1890 the U.S. Census Bureau (11th Census, 1893, p. 73) reports," The only land animals (on Marmot Island) are the foxes and myriads of ground squirrels (spermophilus), * * * These rodents are called 'yevrashka' in Russian. This word our mapmakers erroneously translated 'marmot,' and thus misnamed the island * * *'. Father Veniaminov (1846, p. 63) published the Aleut name "Uhnik" (for Yevrashka) from "ulngiq" which according to R. H. Geoghegan, means "ground squirrel." This island was named "St. Hermogenes" on May 25, 177

On March 26, 1930 at 4:10 a.m. the Panama, a 51 ton 69 foot long fishing oil screw vessel, was stranded and lost. It had departed from Seattle on March 18. When the ship hit a reef the crew boarded dories and made their way to Marmot Island.