Kitoi Bay Hatchery (KBH) is located on Afognak Island on the west side of Izhut Bay approximately 48 km (30 miles) north of the City of Kodiak. The hatchery infrastructure was constructed in 1954 by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, but was destroyed in the 1964 earthquake and rebuilt by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in 1965.

The hatchery was initially designed as a sockeye salmon research facility. By 1976, hatchery production priorities had switched to pink salmon fisheries enhancement. The present goal of the facility is to provide enhanced common property salmon fishing opportunities for Kodiak Management Area (KMA) fishermen by increasing returns of pink, chum, coho, and sockeye salmon through broodstock development, egg takes, incubation, hatching, rearing, and releasing juvenile salmon, primarily to the Kitoi Bay area. KBH’s primary contribution is to KMA commercial fisheries. Secondary user groups (in terms of the number of salmon harvested) of hatchery production include subsistence and recreational fishermen.

Species produced at KBH:

Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)  permitted for 215 million eggs

Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta)  permitted for 36 million eggs

Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)  permitted for 2.3 million eggs

Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)  permitted for 850,000 eggs