Career
The islands, and surrounding small islets, now bear his name, being known as the Pribilof Islands. Pribylov was commander of the ship Saint George (Sv Georgii Pobedonosets), a sloop or galiot, when he discovered Saint George Island on June 25, 1786, by following the sounds of barking northern fur seals. Pribylov"s discovery successfully ended an active three-year search for the lucrative breeding grounds of fur seals by Siberian merchants.
His expedition was funded jointly by Grigory Shelikhov and Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin.
More than 20 of Pribylov"s crew, which was of mixed Russian and Aleut descent, were left on Saint George Island to hunt the seals. Both Russians and Aleuts stayed behind for the hunt.
This played a key role in establishing the international hunting of northern fur seals, which continued in various forms until banned by international treaty in 1911, and nearly forced the seals to extinction. A year later in 1787, Pribylov discovered Saint Paul Island, approximately 50 miles to the north of Saint George.
In truth, Pribylov did not actually discover the islands, as he was directed to their approximate location by the son of an Aleut chief
The then-uninhabited islands, known to the Aleuts as Amiq, were a fabled hunting ground in Aleut oral tradition.
