24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Akutan, AK

Akutan (Aleut: Achan-ingiiga) is a city on Akutan Island in Aleutians East Borough.

The population of Akutan was 1,589 at the 2020 census, up from 1,027 in 2010, making it the 4th fastest-growing city of the decade in Alaska.

There were only 48 households in Akutan at the 2020 census, because most residents are transient fish processing workers living in group quarters, and only about 75 persons are year-round residents.

Akutan was incorporated as a city in 1979.

Akutan began in 1878 as a fur storage and trading port for the Western Fur and Trading Company, and a Russian Orthodox church and school were built in 1878, replaced by the St. Alexander Nevsky Chapel in 1918.

The Pacific Whaling Company built a whale processing station across the bay from Akutan in 1912, the only whaling station in the Aleutians, and it operated until 1939.

After the Japanese attacked Unalaska in June 1942, the U.S. government evacuated Akutan residents to the Ketchikan area, and the village was re-established in 1944.

In June 1942, a Japanese A6M Zero fighter crashed on Akutan Island, and the recovered plane, dubbed the Akutan Zero, significantly aided American tacticians in devising dog fighting techniques to defeat the Zero.

Akutan is located 35 miles east of Unalaska and 766 miles southwest of Anchorage, covers 147.90 square miles, of which 65.98 square miles are land, and its ZIP code is 99553.

Commercial fish processing dominates Akutan's economy, and Trident Seafoods operates a large processing plant west of the city for cod, crab, pollock and fish meal.