Gavriil Loginovich Pribylov (russian: Прибыло́в, Гаврии́л Ло́гинович; first name also spelled Gavriel, Gerasim or Gerassim, last name also spelled Pribilof) (died 1796) was a Russian navigator who discovered the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

islands of St. George Island and St. Paul Island in 1786 and 1787. The islands, and surrounding small islets, now bear his name, being known as the Pribilof Islands. Pribylov was commander of the Russian American Company ship ''St. George'' (''Sv. Georgii Pobedonosets''), a

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

or galiot, when he discovered St. 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 Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (Григо́рий Ива́нович Ше́лихов in Russian) (1747, Rylsk, Belgorod Governorate – July 20, 1795 (July 31, 1795 New Style)) was a Russian seafarer, merchant, and fur trader who perpetrated the ...

and Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin. Shelikhov controlled a monopoly on Aleutian fur-trading activities granted by Empress

Catherine II of Russia , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

, but often took on partners to help fund his activities; the two men would later become rivals. More than 20 of Pribylov's crew, which was of mixed Russian and Aleut descent, were left on St. 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, after nearly forcing the seals to extinction. A year later in 1787, Pribylov discovered St. Paul Island, approximately 50 miles to the north of St. 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pribylov 1796 deaths Explorers from the Russian Empire Russian navigators Year of birth unknown Russian explorers of North America Explorers of Alaska 18th-century people from the Russian Empire 18th-century explorers