On a single day in July 2006, to illustrate, two vessels of the Bristol Bay fishing fleet were lost on the shoals of Smoky Point.
The crew of the fishing vessels Kaos and Silver Tide were rescued by heroic efforts of the M/V Farwest Leader in extreme weather conditions in the dark.
The terrain consists of a series of long ridges which once comprised the ancient coastline of the Bering Sea punctuated by numerous long, narrow lakes and marshland which provide food and shelter for any number of nesting seabirds and annual migrations of the emperor goose, lesser Canada goose, Arctic tern, cormorant, mallard duck, fish duck, and others.
The land is also host to the American bald eagle, sandhill crane, willow ptarmigan, barrenground caribou, brown bear, foxes, porcupines, ground squirrels, and wolves, to name but a few.
Although treeless, some stands of willow and alder grow in the more protected valleys between the ridges; the region is mostly covered with low shrubbery, mosses, and lichen, which comprise the tundra of the plain.