About Cook Inlet
Cangaciq, Tikahtnu
A beautiful place with many names, Cook Inlet, Cangaciq, and Tikahtnu all describe this region’s expansive watershed. The Inlet is currently named after Captain James Cook, an English colonizer who mapped and explored this area in 1778. Cangaciq is the Sugpiaq/Alutiiq placename for the Inlet and is thought to come from the word for “blue.” The Dena’ina word for this area is Tikahtnu, which translates directly to “Big Water River.” Big Water River speaks to the dynamic motion of the water as it floods in and out with dramatic tidal ferocity. From the Susitna River to Augustine Island, Cook Inlet with its diverse names and ecosystems encompass an equally diverse and vibrant history.
This watershed we call home is truly a vigorous place where people and ideas ebb and flow and through it all Cook Inletkeeper is steadfast in the waters like kelp dancing in the tides.
Our Watershed
We all need clean water
The watershed supports a rich fabric of life, including brown bears, black bears, caribou, moose, wolves, beavers, coyotes, bald eagles, sandhill cranes and other migratory birds, sea otters, sea lions, orcas, humpbacks and the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale. With one of the highest concentrations of public lands in the nation, the Cook Inlet watershed is home to:
- Denali National Park
- Katmai National Park
- Kenai Fjords National Park
- Lake Clark National Park
- Chugach National Forest
- Kenai and Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuges
- Four state parks and sanctuaries, including the world-famous McNeil River Bear Sanctuary; and seven Critical Habitat areas.
Two-thirds of Alaska’s population lives within the Cook Inlet watershed and depends on its clean waters and healthy habitats for their livelihood. Alaska Native villages pursue a subsistence lifestyle that is centuries old, supplying up to 90% of the villagers’ diet. With five species of wild Pacific salmon, herring, scallops, halibut, and other bottom fish, Cook Inlet boasts some of the most productive fisheries in Alaska. Each year, nearly one million visitors from around the world venture to Cook Inlet to experience its magnificent beauty.
Our energy landscape is on the cusp of rapid change. Cook Inlet served as a frontier in Alaska’s oil and gas industry, employing residents, and providing energy locally and globally since the 1960s. Today, eleven offshore platforms continue to operate in Upper Cook Inlet, along with a small number of onshore sites and facilities on both sides of the Inlet. Recent interest in new offshore lease sales in federal and state waters of Cook Inlet has been tepid. Fortunately, Cook Inlet enjoys significant renewable energy potential. An 11-turbine wind farm on Fire Island near Anchorage has the capacity to power 7,000 homes, and is likely to expand. Other large privately-owned wind farms are in financing and permitting stages. Solar energy, increasingly competitive, is being installed by more home- and business-owners. Geothermal and tidal energy are increasingly viable, with multiple active leases and demonstration projects.
In concert with this organizational history, Cook Inletkeeper acknowledges that the Inlet and surrounding lands have been home to the Dena’ina, Sugpiaq/Alutiiq people of Alaska’s Southcentral region for thousands of years, long before the occupations of settler culture or the “Waterkeeper” concept. Indigenous stewardship and relationships to traditional lands and ways of life are essential matters of any developing environmental or economic solution for Alaska’s future generations.