Tutka Bay Lagoon hosts a fish hatchery on the southern shore of Tutka Bay in Kachemak Bay State Park, roughly 10 miles (16 km) east of Seldovia and 15 miles (24 km) south-southeast of Homer, Alaska. Kachemak Bay is designated critical habitat with relatively high biodiversity. The 400,000-acre (161,943 ha) state park encompasses mostly wilderness on the southern Kenai Peninsula. With no road access, visitors typically fly in or travel by boat from Homer.

The well-protected lagoon comprises two semi-enclosed basins. The northern basin covers roughly 27 acres (11 ha) with depths reaching 27 feet (8 m). The southern basin has largely filled with sediment, creating a 37-acre (15 ha) salt marsh. An unnamed stream deposits these sediments after flowing northwest for 8 miles (13 km) from roughly 2,500 feet (760 m) elevation in the Kenai Mountains. A tidal creek roughly 0.3 miles (0.5 km) long connects the lagoon to Tutka Bay but becomes unnavigable at low tide, when a shallow delta plain extends roughly 1300 feet (400 m) into Tutka Bay.

The hatchery sits at the stream’s mouth at the southern basin’s head. The state-owned facility, operated by Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, was built in 1976 and expanded in 1991. It primarily produces pink salmon, released annually from 1976 to 2004 and from 2011 to present. Roughly 100 million pink salmon fry are reared in northern basin net pens for roughly two months. The fry imprint in the pens, resulting in roughly 3 million adult pink salmon returning annually. The state permits the hatchery to incubate 125 million pink salmon eggs annually. Read more here and here. Explore more of Tutka Bay Lagoon and Kachemak Bay here: