In the twenty years following the United States' acquisition of the Alaska territory (1867), revenues from the Pribilof Island fur seal harvest paid off the 7.2 million dollar purchase price. This documentary uncovers this little-known piece of American history told through the story of Henry Wood Elliott, an artist and naturalist who produced some of the earliest images of the Pribilof fur seal harvest, wrote the first detailed account of the northern fur seal's life history, and who many regard as the man who saved the northern fur seal from extinction.

The NOAA Ocean Media Center produced this film as part of the Pribilof Islands Environmental Restoration Project. From 1999 to 2008, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration led the restoration and cleanup of debris and contamination of the Pribilof Islands.