Gulf coast of Alaska: where the mountains meet the sea.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: REGIONAL REVIEW

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The Gulf Coast of Alaska has been referred to as a place where mountains meet the sea. It's an apt description. The entire shoreline of the coast represents a rugged combination of mountains, forests and tidewater glaciers--including the mammoth Malaspina and Bering glaciers.

Alaska's Gulf Coast is an arm of the Pacific Ocean, defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found.

The Gulf of Alaska coastline is heavily notched by two large connected bodies of water: Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound. The massive Prince William Sound is surrounded by the steep and glaciated Chugach Mountains to the east, west and north. Because the sound was formed by millions of years of glaciations, its 3,000 miles of shoreline are marked by a multitude of fjords, passageways, islands and rocky shores.

MAIN PLACES IN THE REGION

Primary communities along the sound are Cordova, Whittier and oil-exporting Valdez, along with the Alaska Native villages of Chenega and Tatitlek. Over the years, the populations of Valdez and Cordova have been declining, according to Neal Fried, an economist with the Alaska Department of Labor. For instance, Valdez--which operates a critical port at the southern end of the Alaska pipeline--had 4,036 residents in 2000 and 3,600 in 2007, Fried said.

The population for the entire region has also been trending downward, Fried said. The reason why isn't clear. "It could be because of the decline in oil production," Fried said. "The visitor industry has been a struggle because they've been more dependent on the highway industry. The fisheries have been fine, but they haven't been a source of growth."

The Alaska Gulf Coast is also home to beautiful Kodiak Island and U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak--the U.S. Coast Guard's largest operating base. The air station represents the first permanent Coast Guard aviation resource in Alaska. It was commissioned as an air detachment on April 17, 1947, with one PBY Catalina aircraft, seven pilots and 30 crewmen.

The main drivers of the economy of Alaska's Gulf Coast are commercial fishing, sport fishing, the oil industry, tourism and the Coast Guard. The harvests from Kodiak, Prince William Sound and other parts of the region tend to be a mix of salmon. The Gulf of Alaska also has a massive groundfish harvest dominated by pollock. Successful fish harvesting in the region has helped Alaska maintain its position as the No. 1 fishing state in the nation since 1975, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

KODIAK ISLAND, ALASKA'S EMERALD ISLE

Discovered by Russian explorer Stephan Glotov in 1763, Kodiak Island is renowned for huge Kodiak bears, world-class sport fishing and being one of the nation's largest commercial fishing ports. Geographically, the Kodiak Island...