The island is 1.8 miles (2.9 km) long and its maximum elevation is 61 feet (19 m).

The land area is about 200 acres (81 hectares).

[1] It is the site of the Bowdoin Scientific Research Station, which is mainly involved in bird and nature research.

The island was donated to Bowdoin College in 1936 by John Sterling Rockefeller.

[2] The first director of the Bowdoin research station was ornithologist Alfred Otto Gross, until his retirement in 1953.