Antsiferov Island

Antsiferov Island (Ostrov Antsiferova) is a small, uninhabited island at the northern end of the Greater Kuril Ridge, in the Sea of Okhotsk off Kamchatka's eastern coast. It belongs to the Severo-Kurilsk municipal district of Sakhalin Oblast and is separated from the larger Paramushir Island by the Luzhin Strait, about 14 kilometers wide. The island's coastline runs roughly 12 kilometers. The whole island is the above-water part of the Shirinki volcano and is named after the Russian explorer Danila Yakovlevich Antsiferov.

The Shirinki volcano

The island is entirely built from the Holocene-age Shirinki stratovolcano, 761 meters high. Its crater, about 750 meters across, consists of two lava cones. On the island's eastern side, remains of an older cone survive, covered by hardened pyroclastic flows from past eruptions. According to one version, the Ainu name of the volcano, Shirinki, means "place of big waves": the island is exposed to strong winds and storms of the Sea of Okhotsk.

History

In the early 18th century the island was mapped by Kamchatka Cossacks. On a 1745 Russian map it appeared under the name Dyakov, or Diakon. Its modern name honors Danila Antsiferov, one of the first explorers of the Kuril chain. Before the Russians arrived, Ainu people regularly visited the island to hunt and fish.

In 1875, after the Kuril Islands were ceded to Japan, the island passed under Japanese jurisdiction. In 1945, following the Second World War, it returned to the USSR along with the entire Kuril chain, and since 1991 it has been part of Russia. The island has never had a permanent population.

Nature

Constant strong winds prevent any forest from growing on the island. Instead, dense grassy vegetation dominates, with wild rye (Leymus) as the main species. The plant life is sparse: only about 23 species of vascular plants have been recorded.

Antsiferov Island is one of the five main breeding sites for Steller sea lions in the Greater Kuril Ridge, with large rookeries of these marine mammals. The island's rocky shores also serve as nesting grounds for seabirds — as of 2007, at least 11 species were recorded here.

Getting there

The nearest settlement is the town of Severo-Kurilsk on Paramushir Island, 14 kilometers away across the Luzhin Strait. Tourist ships, including the Anatoliy Cherneev and the Gipanis, bring visitors to Antsiferov Island as part of Kuril Islands cruises. Severo-Kurilsk itself is reached from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky by plane or ferry.