Kitoi Bay is a cove about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) across on the west side of Izhut Bay, on the southeast coast of Afognak Island, roughly 105 miles (169 km) southwest of Homer and 28 miles (45 km) north of Kodiak, Alaska. Its name derives from the Russian “Kitovaya Bukhta,” or Whale Bay, published in 1943 by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service built a hatchery at Kitoi Bay in 1954, initially as a sockeye salmon research facility. The 1964 earthquake destroyed it, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game rebuilt it in 1965. By 1976 the hatchery’s priorities had shifted from research toward enhancing pink salmon fisheries. Today its goal is to boost common-property salmon fishing for Kodiak Management Area fishermen by increasing returns of pink, chum, coho and sockeye salmon.

The State of Alaska owns the hatchery, which the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association operates under an agreement with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The department funded the hatchery alone until 1987, then shared funding with the association from 1987 to 1991. Since 1992 the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association has funded the hatchery in full.  Read more here and here. Explore more of Kitoi Bay Hatchery and Afognak Island here: