New Siberian Islands Islands (228 km²) lie to the north-east of Novaya Sibir. The New Siberian Islands are low-lying. Their highest point is located on Bennett island, with an elevation of 426 m. The New Siberian Islands once formed major hills within the Great Arctic Plain that covered the northern part of Late Pleistocene "Beringia" between Siberia and Alaska during the Last Glacial Maximum (Late Weichselian Epoch). These islands represent the remains of about 1.6 million square kilometers of the formerly subaerial Great Arctic Plain that now lies submerged below parts of the Arctic Ocean, East Siberian Sea, and Laptev Sea. At this
East Siberian Sea ("Eschrichtius robustus"), beluga ("Delphinapterus leucas") and narwhal ("Monodon monoceros"). Major fish species are grayling and "Coregonus" (whitefishes), such as muksun ("Coregonus muksun"), broad whitefish ("Coregonus nasus") and omul ("Coregonus autumnalis"). Also common are polar smelt, saffron cod, polar cod, flounder and Arctic char. The coast of the East Siberian Sea was inhabited for ages by the native peoples of northern Siberia such as Yukaghirs and Chukchi (eastern areas). Those tribes were engaged in fishing, hunting and reindeer husbandry, as reindeer sleds were essential for transportation and hunting. They were joined and absorbed by Evens and Evenks around the 2nd century