Serykh Gusey Islands

The Serykh Gusey Islands (Ostrova Serykh Gusey) is an island group in the Chukchi Sea, located northwest of the shores of the Kolyuchinskaya Bay. The islands are in the area of the Belyaka Spit, which encloses the Kolyuchin Bay, isolating it from the Chukchi Sea.

The Serykh Gusey Islands are aligned from north to south, being on average about 5 km from the coast of the Chukotka Peninsula. Yuzhnyy Island is the largest in the Serykh Gusey group, being about 12 Km in length. The area is marked by sandy flats, beaches and dry crowberry tundra "(Empetrum nigrum)." Shingle beaches give way to flat, turfy surfaces. Yuzhnyy Island is dotted with small brackish pools. [ [http://www.wetlands.org/Russia/Ru/getfilefromdb.aspx?ID=69106ae6-7c3e-47ac-8966-b55c11a4fb2f Wetlands] ]

The waters around these coastal islands are frozen for about nine or ten months on a yearly average, so that they are merged with the mailand most of the year.

Administratively this island group belongs to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation.

References

* Encarta Encyclopedia Map
* [http://alaska.fws.gov/seaduckjv/pdf/stei_telem_update_11_01.pdf Steller’s Eider in the Serykh Gusey Islands]