Refuge Notebook

A collection of stories - adventures, successes, daily work - on the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, past and present.

Geese Thought Extinct Rediscovered
Notes from Bob Jones field journal from 1962 and 1963 on Buldir Island in the western Aleutian Islands of the Alaska Maritime Refuge when he found the Aleutian cackling goose thought to be extinct.

Sea Otters, Atomic Bombs, and Amchitka Island
Amchitka Island was the stronghold of sea otter recovery after a 1911 international treaty protected the animals from near extinction by fur hunters. A reconnaissance mission launches a new direction in the recovery of these marine mammals.

Bob "Sea Otter" Jones - A lifetime of Achievement
A tribute to the first resident manager of the Aleutian Islands Refuge by Vernon Byrd, celebrating the removal of the Aleutian Canada goose from the Endangered Species List in 2001.

Bob "Sea Otter" Jones Knew Tricks to Launching a Dory
An excerpt from an oral history interview. The first resident manager of the Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge (now part of Alaska Maritime Refuge) tells how he handled the dories for research in the islands during the 1950s through early 1970s.

Saga of the Refuge's Last Dory - An Intrepid Boat Restored
Representing a long line of working dories used to transport scientists in the Aleutian Islands, one boat is still owned by the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. That dory now welcomes visitors to the Refuge's new Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center (Homer, Alaska).

Last updated: September 8, 2008