Moss Harbor is a low-tide lagoon located at the head of China Poot Bay on the southern shore of Kachemak Bay, about 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Seldovia and 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Homer Alaska. China Poot Bay is nearly dry at low tide, and a narrow channel along the northeast side terminates at Moss Harbor. This local boat basin has depths of about 24 feet (7 m). Experienced boat operators navigate the channel in skiffs near low tide and in larger boats at high tide to avoid strong currents. A peninsula known locally as Moosehead Point separates Moss Harbor from Peterson Bay. It connects to the mainland only at low tide via a narrow isthmus. The peninsula is composed mainly of basalt and chert, part of the McHugh Complex—a geological formation within the Southern Margin composite terrane. This terrane accreted to the western margin of the North American plate during the Mesozoic era. The current landscape of Kachemak Bay was shaped by repeated glaciations during the Pleistocene epoch. During the Naptowne Glaciation of the late Wisconsin glacial period, nearly all of Cook Inlet and surrounding land were covered by ice. At that time, glaciers from the Kenai Mountains filled Kachemak Bay with ice, reaching an altitude of about 1,575 feet (480 m) above today’s sea level. The deglaciation history of Kachemak Bay is not well-documented, but it is likely that the local ice retreat began before 13,000 years ago. By 10,000 years ago, the ice had retreated more than 6 miles (10 km) up the valley from the current shoreline of upper Kachemak Bay.

The peninsula forming Moosehead Point may have been the location of the lost village of Soonroodna, visited in 1883 by Johan Adrian Jacobsen, a Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer. Soonroodna was a sizable village even before Russian fur traders arrived in 1794. After building Fort Saint Nicholas at the Kenai River, the Russians launched a raid on Soonroodna, taking many young girls and women back to the fort as wives. In deep sorrow, the remaining Natives abandoned their village, realizing their powerlessness against the Russians. They scattered among villages on Kodiak Island. Starting in mid-1881, Jacobsen was hired by Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde to collect ethnographic objects and specimens from disappearing cultures. His travels spanned the Arctic to South America, North America, Korea, Japan, Siberia, and the Pacific Islands. While waiting at Alexandrovsk, present-day Nanwalek, for a ship to Kodiak, he hired a local guide to take him to Soonroodna. This ancient village was reputedly located at the foot of the third glacier on the south side of Kachemak Bay and was abandoned between 1792 and 1796. At the site, he collected arrow and harpoon points, pottery, blades, and wooden masks. In 2018, the Foundation for Prussian Cultural Heritage returned these Native artifacts to Alaska. Nine objects from the Berlin Ethnological Museum’s collection had come into their possession. The excavated items, including two broken masks, a cradle, and a wooden idol, were brought by Jacobsen from Chenega Island in Prince William Sound and from Soonroodna in Kachemak Bay. They were determined to have been acquired through looting rather than an approved archaeological dig. Consequently, the foundation decided to return the objects to the Chugach Alaska Corporation.

China Poot Lake, also known as Leisure Lake, is located within Kachemak Bay State Park. The lake sits at an elevation of 168 feet (51 m) and is drained by China Poot Creek, which flows 0.6 miles (1 km) to the head of China Poot Bay. Here, the creek cascades over a series of falls impassable to returning adult Pacific salmon. Despite this barrier, the lake supports populations of coastrange sculpin, threespine stickleback, rainbow trout. Sockeye salmon fry are introduced annually to the lake, as there was no natural sockeye salmon run prior to this intervention. The sockeye enhancement program is managed by the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association and funded by commercial fishers. Because the falls on China Poot Creek are impassable, the entire returning salmon run is harvested, and recruitment is solely maintained through annual fry introductions. The China Poot sockeye salmon have become a significant fishery in Kachemak Bay. From June to August, adult sockeye returning to China Poot Creek are commercially fished between Port Graham and Peterson Bay using seine and set-nets. Those that escape are available for personal use dipnetting. In 1984, the Alaska Board of Fisheries designated China Poot Creek open for personal use dip net fishing in July, from the freshwater boundary to the barrier falls, for Alaska residents. Dip netting involves a bag-shaped net on a rigid frame with a diameter not exceeding 5 feet (1.5 m) to scoop fish out of the river. Although different fisheries use various types and sizes of nets, the methods remain similar. Dip netting can be done from shore or a boat. Read more here and here. Explore more of Moss Harbor and China Poot Bay here: