Bering Island is treeless, desolate and experiences severe weather, including high winds, persistent fog and earthquakes.

The survivors under the command of the Swedish born lieutenant Sven Waxell [ru] were stranded on the island for 10 months, and managed to survive by killing seals and birds.

They were able to build a boat out of their stranded wreck and managed to return to Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula in 1742 with sea otter furs and preserved meat from the newly discovered island.

[7] Another of the expedition's survivors was Georg Wilhelm Steller, who eventually managed to convince his companions to eat seaweed (thus curing their scurvy).

Upon returning to the Russian mainland, Steller then explored the Kamchatka peninsula and ultimately published De Bestiis Marinis (‘On the Beasts of the Sea’).

However, his sympathies for the native peoples led to accusations that he was fomenting rebellion, so he was imprisoned and recalled to St. Petersburg, dying en route at age 37, although his diaries were later published to great acclaim and historic significance.

[11] Like the rest of Kamchatka Krai, Bering Island has a subarctic climate (Dfc), though the ocean makes temperatures much less extreme than interior Siberia, with winters being about four degrees milder than in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.