The Sandman Reefs are a group of islets, reefs, and wave-washed rocks in the Eastern Aleutian Islands near the western end of the Alaska Peninsula, about 78 miles (126 km) southwest of Sand Point and 24 miles (39 km) south of King Cove, Alaska. The treeless, storm-swept islands spread over roughly 704,250 acres (285,000 ha) between the Pavlof Islands and Deer Island in the north, extending south almost to the Sanak Islands; only 24 exceed 10 acres (4 ha) in size. Named in 1882 for Captain Sandman of the Alaska Commercial Company by William H. Dall of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, the area’s uncharted shoals and foul weather deter human encroachment. The islands are composed largely of igneous columnar basalts that are resistant to erosion, creating steep sea cliffs and reefs. The columns form during the cooling of thick lava flows: while a flow can shrink vertically without fracturing, horizontal shrinkage requires cracks, producing an extensive fracture network of predominantly hexagonal columns. Sea cliffs erode chiefly through thermal expansion of freezing ocean spray and rainwater seeping into cracks; broken rock tumbles into the sea and accumulates as talus at cliff bases, with waves and currents removing only the finer particles.

The Sandman Reefs are the traditional territory of the Unangan (Aleut) people, who historically inhabited the Aleutian Islands, the Shumagin Islands, and the far western Alaska Peninsula, with an estimated pre-contact population of around 25,000. The reefs were likely used for hunting and gathering: harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters, and vast seabird colonies provided eggs, meat, and feathers. In the 18th century, Russian promyshlenniki traders established settlements on the islands, later marrying Aleut women and starting families. By the 1820s the Russian-American Company administered a large portion of the North Pacific during a Russian-led expansion of the fur trade. Aleut populations suffered catastrophic losses in the 19th and early 20th centuries from Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, and their customary way of life was severely disrupted. Today, the remaining Eastern Aleutian tribes include the Agdaagux Tribal Council of King Cove, the Akutan Traditional Council, the Nelson Lagoon Tribal Council, the Unga Tribal Council, the Qagan Tayagungin Tribal Council of Sand Point, the False Pass Tribal Council, and the Pauloff Harbor Tribal Council.

The islands form part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and provide important habitat for seabirds, including ancient murrelets. The Sandman Reefs are significant because foxes were never introduced to most of the islands, leaving bird populations relatively intact. In the 1970s, Leach’s storm-petrels were both the most frequently encountered nocturnal species and probably the most abundant overall. Fork-tailed storm-petrels were recorded on all but eight islands visited; ancient murrelets, Cassin’s auklets, and rhinoceros auklets bred on 16, 14, and one island respectively. Nesting densities of Cassin’s auklets were extremely high on several islands, with two-thirds of Alaska’s known population breeding in the Sandmans. All five nocturnal species found in Alaska nested on Patton Island. Tufted puffins were the most abundant diurnal species at nearly 100,000 pairs; horned puffins numbered 85,000 pairs. Glaucous-winged gulls were abundant on most islands, while mew gulls nested only on Cherni Island. Common and thick-billed murres and black-legged kittiwakes were comparatively scarce, each totaling only 2,800 pairs. Three cormorant species were recorded, with the red-faced cormorant most abundant and a large double-crested cormorant colony on Cherni Island. Bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and several passerines also breed in the Sandman Reefs. Read more here and here. Explore more of the Sandman Reefs and the Aleutian Islands here: