Sarichef Island is a long and narrow coastal island on the Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...

-facing coast of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. It is located at the mouth of the Shishmaref Inlet

Shishmaref Inlet

The Shishmaref Inlet is a coastal lagoon on the Chukchi Sea-facing shores of Alaska. It is 5 miles in length.The location of the Shishmaref Inlet is SW 17 mi. to the SW from Sarichef Island, at the mouth of the Serpentine River, Kotzebue-Kobuk Low....

, Kotzebue-Kobuk Low

Nome Census Area, Alaska

Nome Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 9,196. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat. Its largest community by far is the city of Nome....

Sarichef Island is 7 km (4.3 mi) in length. The highest point on the island is 6 m (19.7 ft) above sea level.

Shishmaref

Shishmaref, Alaska

Shishmaref is a village in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States, located on Sarichef Island in the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait and five miles from the mainland. It lies within the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve...

 town and Shishmaref Airport

Shishmaref Airport

Shishmaref Airport is a state-owned public-use airport located one nautical mile south of the central business district of Shishmaref, a village in the Nome Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has one asphalt paved runway designated 5/23 and measuring 5,000 x 70 ft....

 are located on this island.

This island was named in 1816 by explorer Lt. Otto von Kotzebue

Otto von Kotzebue

Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service....

, of the Imperial Russian Navy

Imperial Russian Navy

The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...

, "in the honor of his worthy" Vice Admiral Gavril Sarychev

Gavril Sarychev

Gavril Andreyevich Sarychev , spelt "Sarichef" in the United States, was a Russian navigator, hydrographer, admiral and Honorable Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg.Sarychev started his career in the Imperial Russian Navy in 1775...

(1763–1831).

External links

• USGS