Shishmaref is an Iñupiat community on Sarichef Island, a low barrier island between Shishmaref Inlet to the south and the Chukchi Sea to the north, about 105 miles (169 km) southwest of Kotzebue and 73 miles (117 km) northeast of Wales, Alaska. The island sits on the northern coast of the Seward Peninsula, adjacent to the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. Shishmaref Inlet is navigable by shallow-draft barges and tugs, but it has no docks. Geologically, the island is a low ridge of sand and beach deposits that rises only 20 feet (6 m) at its highest point. It is part of a barrier chain that runs more than 60 miles (100 km) along the low coastal plain between Cape Prince of Wales and Cape Espenberg, with individual islands ranging from 6 to 25 miles (10 to 40 km) long and generally widening from west to east. Little sediment reaches these waters from land, so the nearshore sand supply comes mostly from eroded inner-shelf and bluff sediments, which the Alaska Coastal Current carries along the shore. The tidal range is only about 2.6 feet (0.8 m), so the islands have broad, wave-dissipative profiles. Wind and barometric pressure control sea height during the open-water season, when fetches can exceed 300 miles (500 km). Storms can raise coastal water levels 6 to 10 feet (2-3 m) and reshape barrier islands within hours.

In 1816, Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue of the Imperial Russian Navy, exploring aboard the brig Rurik, named the inlet after the ship’s navigator, Lieutenant Gleb S. Shishmaryov. The island was named the same year for Vice-Admiral Gavrila A. Sarichev, who later led the compilation of the Atlas of the Northern Part of the Pacific Ocean. The island’s Iñupiaq name, Qigiqtaq (also spelled Kigiktaq), means “island.” Sediments in the barrier chain record about 2,000 years of human and environmental history, and the Iñupiat have lived here for more than 4,000 years. Arthur J. Collier of the US Geological Survey explored the area in 1900. The following year, Sarichef Island became a logistics center for mining on Ear Mountain to the south, and a post office opened in the village, which took its name from the inlet. The village was incorporated in 1969. Shoreline defenses first went up in the 1970s, and in October 1997 a storm eroded more than 30 feet (9 m) of shoreline, forcing 14 homes to be moved. The US Army Corps of Engineers built a 230-foot (70-m) rock revetment near the school, and a longer, lower revetment funded by the city and state followed. Together, the projects cost more than $27 million and were designed to last about 15 years.

Shishmaref’s 576 residents, counted in the 2020 census, still live on the island, and erosion continues. Shoreline retreat averages three to five feet a year, and the Corps has warned that the revetments will eventually be undermined. Erosion appears to be accelerating, which climate models link to sea-level rise, shrinking sea ice, shifting storm tracks and thawing permafrost. Engineers have proposed gabions, rock revetments, beach nourishment, groins and an offshore shore-parallel breakwater, but the village’s central choice remains whether to stay or move. A 2004 Corps study put relocation to a new mainland site at $180 million, the costliest of four options, against $110 million to stay put. Residents voted 89 to 78 in 2016 to relocate, but no move has taken place. A later state-commissioned study by AECOM, an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm, recommended staying put, and no relocation site has been chosen. Read more here and here. Explore more of Shishmaref and Sarichef Island here: