Gulf of Alaska

1 3.7

A large part of the Pacific Ocean between the Alaska Peninsula and the Alexander Archipelago along Alaska's southern coast

proper noun

: Golfo de Alaska

Fishermen often catch salmon in the rich waters of the Gulf of Alaska.
eastern Gulf of Alaska
pollock from the Gulf of Alaska

Examples

The report provided an overview of the seasonal distribution and relative abundance of marine mammals in the Gulf of Alaska.

Academic text (2000)
Storm warnings in effect tonight for the Gulf of Alaska.

Alaska (1996)
Some trace amounts of pollock were reported from the Gulf of Alaska.

Academic text (1994)
Very few dedicated marine mammal surveys were conducted in the Gulf of Alaska prior to the 1970s.

Academic text (2000)
The Japanese also harvested small amounts of pollock from the Gulf of Alaska.

Academic text (1994)
Thus, there are no records of large, persistent groups of belugas in the Gulf of Alaska other than in Cook Inlet.

Academic text (2000)
In 1991, catch limits were established for shortraker rockfish to prevent overharvesting of this species in the Gulf of Alaska.

Academic text (1992)
Janice Waite synthesized information on recent survey dates and sighting data in the Gulf of Alaska.

Academic text (2000)
During the 1970s, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that significantly altered fishery resource management in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Aleutian Islands regions.

Academic text (1995)
The inlet has marine connections with Shelikof Strait and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), and freshwater input from many large rivers (Muench et al., 1978).

Academic text (2000)

Surface Forms

Gulf of Alaska main

Morphology

gulf + of + Alaska

The place name is fully compositional: 'gulf' (a stretch of sea) + 'of' (indicating association/possession) + 'Alaska' (the place) yields ‘a gulf associated with Alaska.’ This standard of‑construction for geographic names is cross‑linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Gulf of Alaska comes from a simple picture: gulf means a big bay and Alaska is the land next to it. The word Alaska comes from a native Aleut word meaning 'great land', so the name shows it is the big bay by the 'great land'.