Lake · United States
Becharof Lake
Becharof Lake is a large lake on the Alaska Peninsula in the United States. It is the second-largest lake in Alaska and is famous for its huge numbers of salmon and brown bears.
Picture credit: USFWSAlaska (Public domain) · USFWSAlaska (Public domain) · U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Becharof Lake?
Countries on its shores: the United States.
Middle of the lake: 57.95° N, 156.38° W
The story behind it
Becharof Lake is about 60 km long and 24 km wide, and at its deepest point it goes down about 180 metres. Yet its surface lies only about 4 metres above sea level. The Egegik River carries its water west to Bristol Bay. The lake and its streams have some of the biggest salmon populations in the world, and the second-largest run of sockeye salmon on Earth. Every year they send about six million adult salmon to the Bristol Bay fishery. All these fish feed the largest groups of brown bears in Alaska. Wolves, caribou, moose, foxes and beavers also live around the lake, which is protected in the Becharof National Wildlife Refuge next to Katmai National Park. On the refuge's coast rises the Ugashik-Peulik volcano. The lake is named after the Russian navigator Dmitry Bocharov, who travelled up the Egegik River into the lake in 1791.
Find it on the globe
Becharof Lake is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Becharof Lake?
Becharof Lake covers about 1 170 km² and is about 60 km long. Only Iliamna Lake is bigger in Alaska.
Why are there so many bears at Becharof Lake?
The lake and its streams are full of salmon, which the bears love to eat. That is why the area has the largest groups of brown bears in Alaska.
Who is Becharof Lake named after?
It is named after the Russian navigator Dmitry Bocharov, who explored the area in 1788 and reached the lake in 1791. The naturalist William Healey Dall gave the lake its name in 1868.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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