It is located on the western side of the Chaunskaya Bay, directly off the Nutel'gyrgym Peninsula, at the eastern end of the Kolyma Gulf.

Ayon Island is separated from the mainland by the Maly Chaunsky Strait, a shallow channel which is barely 2 km (1.2 mi) wide in its narrowest spot.

Administratively[citation needed] and municipally,[2] Ayon Island belongs to Chaunsky District, part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation.

[3] Following the rise of communism in the Soviet Union in the first part of the twentieth century, the native herds were collectivised in 1933 into a group called "Enmitagino".

[5] This was the first time that the village site had been inhabited permanently, with indigenous people living there only during the summer when the reindeer were taken to pasture, with the exception of a few individuals who would over-winter in order to hunt.