The Kvichak River (

Yup'ik The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg & pl) and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Central Yup'ik, Alaskan Yup'ik ( own name ''Yup'ik'' sg ''Yupiik'' dual ''Yupiit'' pl; russian: Юпики центральной Аляски), are an I ...

: ''Kuicaraq'') is a large river, about long, in southwestern

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

in the United States. It flows southwest from

Lake Iliamna Iliamna Lake or Lake Iliamna (Yup'ik: ''Nanvarpak''; Dena'ina Athabascan: ''Nila Vena'') is a lake in southwest Alaska, at the north end of the Alaska Peninsula, between Kvichak Bay and Cook Inlet, about west of Seldovia, Alaska. It shares a na ...

Kvichak Bay Kvichak Bay is an arm on the northeast side of Bristol Bay in southern Alaska, at . It is long and wide. The Kvichak River flows into the bay at its furthest northeast point, while the Naknek River Naknek River is a stream, long, in the Brist ...

, an arm of

Bristol Bay Bristol Bay ( esu, Iilgayaq, russian: Залив Бристольский) is the easternmost arm of the Bering Sea, at 57° to 59° North 157° to 162° West in Southwest Alaska. Bristol Bay is 400 km (250 mi) long and 290 km, ( ...

, on the

Alaska Peninsula The Alaska Peninsula (also called Aleut Peninsula or Aleutian Peninsula, ale, Alasxix̂; Sugpiaq: ''Aluuwiq'', ''Al'uwiq'') is a peninsula extending about to the southwest from the mainland of Alaska and ending in the Aleutian Islands. The ...

. The communities of Igiugig and Levelock lie along the Kvichak River. The Kvichak is navigable along its entire length, and is used as a short cut by boats getting between

Cook Inlet Cook Inlet ( tfn, Tikahtnu; Sugpiaq: ''Cungaaciq'') stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage. On its sou ...

and

via the Lake Iliamna portage. The Kvichak River is home to the largest

red salmon The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a ...

run in the world. Commercial harvests are worth hundreds of millions of

U.S. dollars The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

annually. The Kvichak River is part of the watershed downstream of the proposed

Pebble Mine Pebble Mine is the common name of a proposed copper-gold- molybdenum mining project in the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska, near Lake Iliamna and Lake Clark. As of November 2020 the mine developer, Northern Dynasty Minerals, was seeking ...

. Historically, the river was navigated and subsistence fished by local

Alaska Natives Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a numbe ...

. The name of the river means ''from''- or ''up to''- ''great water'', a reference to Iliamna Lake, Alaska's largest freshwater lake. The Kvichak River was a finalist for the 2017 Riverprize Award for being one of the best-managed and sustainable rivers in the world.

References

External links

Kvichak River PhotosWildlife of the Kvichak and Nushagak watersheds
– U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service {{authority control Rivers of Bristol Bay Borough, Alaska Rivers of Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska Rivers of Alaska

See also

References

External links