Kachemak Bay is a 40-mi-long (64 km) arm of Cook Inlet in Alaska, located on the southwest side of the Kenai Peninsula. The communities of Homer, Halibut Cove, Seldovia, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Kachemak City are on the bay as well as three Old Believer settlements in the Fox River area. Kachemak Bay is home to Alaska’s only state wilderness park, Kachemak Bay State Park and Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the largest reserve in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. The bay hosts remarkable biological activity, due in part to water circulation patterns which keep shellfish larve and nutrients in the bay. Waterfowl and shorebirds occupy the bay during all but the winter season, while waterbirds and marine mammals including otters, seals, porpoise, and whales remain in the bay all year. The bay provides winter homes for 90% of the seabird and waterfowl populations of Lower Cook Inlet.  Moose, coyote, and bears are frequently seen.