Port Moller is a small community clustered around a historic salmon cannery on Moller Bay, an embayment on the Bering Sea coast of the Alaska Peninsula near the western margin of Bristol Bay, about 93 miles (150 km) northeast of King Cove and 87 miles (140 km) west-southwest of Chignik, Alaska. During the Last Glacial Maximum, most of the Alaska Peninsula was buried under a glacier complex composed of alpine glaciers, piedmont lobes, and ice caps that formed the southeastern border of Beringia. Since deglaciation exposed the landscape, a series of active volcanoes has intermittently deposited layers of ash and pyroclastic flows. Numerous raised and relic beaches, wave-cut shorelines, erosion surfaces and high dune systems reflect a long history of relative sea-level change driven by glaciation, tectonism and shifting cli­matic regimes. The north coast forms a broad coastal plain rising from the Bering Sea, with coastal dunes and beach-ridge complexes common along its relatively straight, unprotected shoreline. Shallow lagoons form behind barrier beaches along much of the coast. Glacially derived sediments mantle much of the coastal plain, while end moraines and ice stagnation topography contribute significantly to the local relief. The plain rises into the interior of the peninsula, where peaks of the Aleutian Range reach summit elevations of 9,850 to 13,100 feet (3,000 to 4,000 m). The Bering Sea coast of the lower Alaska Peninsula is among the most environmentally productive landscapes in the North Pacific. In the fall, hundreds of thousands of migrating waterfowl spend several months feeding on eelgrass in the lagoons. The lagoons and nearshore waters support colonies of harbor seals, while the Bering Sea sustains large populations of fur seals, sea lions, and whales. The uplands support caribou herds and one of the densest populations of brown bears in Alaska. Bering Sea fisheries include more than 40 exploited species, with salmon, pollock, halibut, and Pacific cod proving most economically important. All five Pacific salmon species and steelhead trout are present, with millions of fish returning each year to spawn in the region’s rivers and lakes.

In 1725, Tsar Peter the Great commissioned Vitus Bering to sail east from the Kamchatka Peninsula to explore the western Pacific and the coast of Siberia as part of the First Kamchatka Expedition. In 1727, Bering sailed north aboard the Saint Gabriel through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea, where he encountered an Arctic ice pack and returned to Kamchatka without sighting the North American mainland due to poor visibility. In 1732, Ivan Fyodorov and Mikhail Gvozdev sailed aboard the Saint Gabriel along the Kamchatka Peninsula and through the Bering Strait. They discovered the Diomede Islands but were met by a hail of arrows fired by the Iñupiat. Continuing east toward Cape Prince of Wales, they neared King Island, where a native in a kayak provided information about the configuration of the Alaska coast on the eastern side of the Bering Strait. This voyage represented the first Russian contact with the American mainland and Alaska Native peoples. More than 40 Russian exploratory ocean voyages took place before 1867, most between 1800 and 1850. Many were round-the-world journeys undertaken primarily for political purposes, to transport goods and people to and from their American colonies, while also studying ocean currents and gathering data for more accurate maps. From 1826 to 1829, Captain Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke commanded the Russian corvette Seniavine on a circumnavigation. He was accompanied by Captain Mikhail Nikolaievich Staniukovich, who commanded the armed sloop Moller. They sailed from Kronstadt, near Saint Petersburg, in September 1826 and arrived at Sitka in June 1827. They then sailed to Unalaska and cruised north into the Bering Sea to survey and chart the coast. After overwintering in Honolulu, Staniukovich returned to Alaska in the spring of 1828 to survey the Bering Sea coast of the Alaska Peninsula. He entered and explored the bay, naming it Port Moller after his ship. Staniukovich returned to Kronstadt in 1829. Despite the significant volume of data collected, an official account of the expedition was never published—partly due to a mutiny on the Moller during the voyage and partly because the naval command did not wish to tarnish the expedition’s reputation. Instead, the government supported the publication of Lütke’s account of the Seniavine, which garnered global accolades.

At the time of Russian expansion into the southern Bering Sea, the north coast of the Alaska Peninsula had been inhabited by Aleut Unangan people for thousands of years, who had established large sedentary villages. After the Alaska Purchase in 1867, Ivan Petrof conducted a census and documented an ancient Aleut village near a hot spring between Moller Bay and Herendeen Bay at the head of Port Moller. Between 1873 and 1880, the US Coast and Geodetic Survey schooner Yukon made three voyages to explore Alaskan waters, including the Bering Sea. These trips aimed to correct the positions of bays and islands, which were often misplaced by as much as 20 nautical miles (37 km) on Russian charts. Edward Perry Herendeen, a former whaling captain who served as sailing master on the Yukon, later operated a salmon saltery at Port Moller in 1886 or 1887, as noted by Jefferson F. Moser during an 1898 visit aboard the US Fish Commission ship USS Albatross. In 1912, Pacific American Fisheries built a cannery at Port Moller, and operated the facility until 1965 when the cannery was sold to Peter Pan Seafoods. In 2017, the 100-year-old cannery was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 2018. In 2024, it was sold to Silver Bay Seafoods. The seasonal community relies entirely on the salmon processing plant, which employs approximately 400 workers—cannery employees and fishermen—between May and September. The Port Moller Air Force Station was built in 1958 during the Cold War to support a Distant Early Warning Line radar station. Operated by Detachment 4, 714th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, based at Cold Bay, Alaska, the station was deactivated in September 1969, ending military use of the airport. Around 2000, the Air Force remediated the site by removing abandoned military structures and restoring the area to its natural condition. Read more here and here. Explore more of Port Moller and Moller Bay here: