Fairway Rock

Fairway Rock is a small islet in the Bering Strait, located southeast of the Diomede Islands and west of Alaska's Cape Prince of Wales. It has an area of 0.3 km² (308,541 m², Census block 1047, Nome, Alaska). Known to Eskimo natives of the Bering Strait region in prehistory, Fairway was documented by James Cook in 1778 and named by Frederick Beechey in 1826. Although uninhabited, the island is a nesting site for seabirds — most notably the least and crested auklet — which prompt egg-collecting visits from local indigenous peoples. The United States Navy placed radioisotope thermoelectric generator-powered environmental monitoring equipment on the island from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Geography

The granite mass that is now Fairway Rock, like the larger nearby Diomede Islands, is the remnant of an earlier era of glaciation. [http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/frameindex.html?http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/cruise_of_the_corwin/chapter_17.html]

Fairway Rock is situated 12 mi (19 km) SSE of Little Diomede Island and 20 mi (32 km) W of Cape Prince of Wales, at coord|65|37|N|168|44|W|.cite encyclopedia
title = Fairway Rock
encyclopedia = The Columbia Gazetteer of North America
publisher = Columbia University Press
year = 2000
url = http://www.bartleby.com/69/8/F00208.html
accessdate = 2006-08-05] The island is variously reported as from 300 m cite web
title = Little Diomede Island & Fairway Rock
work = The Important Bird Areas Historical Results
publisher = National Audibon Society
year = 2004
url = http://iba.audubon.org/iba/viewSiteProfile.do?siteId=1065&navSite=state
accessdate = 2006-08-05 ] to 1.5 km in length. cite encyclopedia
title = Fairway Rock
encyclopedia = The Columbia Gazetteer of North America
publisher = Columbia University Press
year = 2000
url = http://www.bartleby.com/69/8/F00208.html
accessdate = 2006-08-05] Rising steeply from the surrounding waters to 534 feet above sea level, Fairway Rock can be easily seen from the mainland coast of Alaska at Cape Prince of Wales.cite book
title = Sailing Directions (Enroute) - East Coast of Russia
publisher = National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
year = 2004
url = http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/pollux/pollux.nss.nima.mil/NAV_PUBS/SD/pub155/155sec1.pdf] The Bering Strait around Fairway Rock is relatively shallow — about 50 m in depth — and oceanographic transects show the island to lie near a current velocity minimum for the strait.cite book
last = Coachmann
first = Lawrence K.
title = Bering Strait
publisher = University of Washington Press
year = 1976
id = ISBN 0-295-95442-6
page = 76
url = http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0295954426&id=gUi-Zkyr9FMC&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=%22fairway+rock%22&sig=ZoZRzgyUSyTVUYHurCRpPjLl4r8 ] Ocean currents north of Fairway Rock are occasionally studied as an example of a real-world system where a Von Kármán vortex street is generated.cite journal
last = Ivanov
first = Andrei Yu
coauthors = Anna I. Ginzburg
title = Oceanic eddies in synthetic aperture radar images
journal = Proc. Indian Acad. Sci.
volume = 111
issue = 3
pages = 281–296
month = September | year = 2002
publisher = Indian Academy of Sciences
url = http://www.ias.ac.in/jessci/sep2002/Ps16.pdf
format = PDF
id = ISSN 0253-4126
accessdate = 2006-08-06 ]

Politically, Fairway Rock is part of the U.S. state of Alaska and lies inside Alaska's Nome Census Area and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Wildlife Conservation Unit 22E.cite book
title = Alaska 2006-2007 Hunting Regulations
publisher = Division of Wildlife Conservation, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
year = 2006
pages = 92-93
url = http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/regulations/pdfs/gmu22.pdf] It is within the Bering Sea Unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.cite web
title = ANCILA - Title 3 - National Wildlife Refuge System
url=http://www.r7.fws.gov/asm/anilca/title03.html
accessdate = 2006-09-30 ] Fairway Rock appears on USGS topographic maps in the Teller Quadrangle.cite web
title = TopoZone - USGS Map Detail - Teller Quadrangle
url=http://www.topozone.com/mapinfo.asp?id=MPTAK2695PP09
accessdate = 2006-09-30 ]

Flora and Fauna

The island's bold cliffs are a haven for many migratory birds. The indigenous peoples who have lived nearby for thousands of years come to the island to gather bird eggs in the Spring. [http://www.gacpc.com/images/neeluk.pdf] [http://www.icewindow.com/page3.htm] [http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/acmp/District/Plans/BeringStraitsCRSA/Chapter6ResourceInventory.pdf] and have continued to do so as recently as the 1990s. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0803226063&id=OwvvnUXfrAUC&pg=PA250&lpg=PA250&dq=%22fairway+rock%22&sig=gOdixDtBYlQ0sLazc0LBxqvXDdM]

The island supports a breeding colony of about 35,000 seabirds, including some 25,000 Least and Crested Auklets. [http://iba.audubon.org/iba/viewSiteProfile.do?siteId=1065&navSite=state] In 1925, the Tufted Puffin ("Fratercula cirrhata"), Horned Puffin ("Fratercula corniculata"), Parakeet Auklets ("Aethia psittacula"), and Pallas' Murre ("Uria lomvia arra") were reported at Farway Rock, nesting in the crevices of the island's cliffs. [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v027n02/p0062-p0067.pdf] A 1960 account reports that Eskimo inhabitants of Little Diomede reported a Glaucous Gull ("Larus hyperboreus") colony on Fairway Rock larger than that on Little Diomede. [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v062n06/p0457-p0463.pdf]

The Steller Sea Lion, an endangered species, may also breed on Fairway Rock. [http://www.asgdc.state.ak.us/maps/cplans/nwa/pdfs/ESI_DATA/INTRO.PDF]

History

Fairway Rock was sighted by Captain James Cook on August 8, 1778. [http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu65.htm] It was named by the English naval officer and geographer Frederick William Beechey upon sighting the island in July 1826. Unlike the names he gave to the Diomede Islands, the name "Fairway" has persisted.cite book
last = Beechey
first = Frederick William
title = Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait, to co- operate with the polar expeditions : performed in His Majesty's ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F.W. Beechey, R.N., F.R.S. &c. in the years 1825, 26, 27, 28.
publisher = H. Colburn and R. Bentley
year = 1831
pages = 337-338
url = http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/PageView/47595/0387?id=1ac86e4b72cd8154]

Fairway Rock was passed and mentioned within the accounts of John Muir's voyager aboard the "Corwin" in 1881 cite book
last = Muir
first = John
title = The Cruise of the Corwin
year = 1917
ISBN = 0618057013
url = http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/frameindex.html?http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/cruise_of_the_corwin/chapter_17.html] and Roald Amundsen aboard the "Gjøa" in 1906.cite web
title = Le passage de Nord Ouest
url= http://www.transpolair.com/explorateurs/amundsen/nord_ouest.htm
accessdate = 2006-09-30 ]

What is considered the last offensive action of the American Civil War happened in this area: the CSS "Shenandoah" fell upon a fleet of whalers working the waters near Alaska's Little Diomede Island and sank more than two dozen ships on June 22, 1865. This is chronicled in the book "The Last Shot".cite book
last = Schooler
first = Lynn
title = The Last Shot: The Incredible Story of the C.S.S. Shenandoah and the True Conclusion of the American Civil War
year = 2005
ISBN = 0060523336
url = http://www.harpercollins.ca/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0060523336]

In 1964, the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Northwind visited the Rock, installing an unmanned oceanographic station in order to measure water flows across the Bering Strait. [http://www.buysell.com/StaticPage/defaultnf.aspx?spp=1200] [http://www.laesser.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84&Itemid=38]

On August 11, 1966, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC04735487&id=fJx75ndIDekC&q=%22Perhaps+the+most+outstanding+demonstration%22&dq=%22Perhaps+the+most+outstanding+demonstration%22&pgis=1] the US Navy placed a strontium-powered radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) atop Fairway Rock for "powering environmental instruments". [http://www.csp.navy.mil/asl/Timeline.htm] [http://www.heritage.org/Research/EnergyandEnvironment/bg48.cfm] . The device, developed by Martin Marietta, was the first commercially-developed instrument of its kind deployed for unattended in-field use by the U.S. government. This use was cited in 1978 Congressional hearings on potential uses for nuclear waste. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC04735487&id=fJx75ndIDekC&q=%22Perhaps+the+most+outstanding+demonstration%22&dq=%22Perhaps+the+most+outstanding+demonstration%22&pgis=1] In 1981 two additional RTGs were added. They were all removed from the island in 1995 [http://www.csp.navy.mil/asl/Timeline.htm] during a visit by the USS Salvor. [http://www.eldrbarry.net/paulmcqm/web_locker/AboutPaul/navy/salvor.htm]

Footnotes

References

* US Navy. [http://www.csp.navy.mil/asl/Timeline.htm Arctic Submarine Laboratory Historical Timeline] . www.csp.navy.mil/asl/Timeline.htm. Retrieved November 14, 2005.

External links

* [http://www.csp.navy.mil/asl US Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory] :: [http://www.csp.navy.mil/asl/ScrapBook/Alaska/FWR0986.jpgSummer 1986 Photo] : [http://www.csp.navy.mil/asl/ScrapBook/Alaska/FWR0489.jpgSpring 1989 Photo] : [http://www.csp.navy.mil/asl/ScrapBook%5CAlaska%5CRTGRemoval.jpg1995 RTG Removal Photo]