Eschscholtz Bay

{{Short description|Arm of Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, U.S.}}

Eschscholtz Bay is an arm of Kotzebue Sound, on the Chukchi Sea-facing coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is up to eleven miles wide, and separated from the outer Kotzebue Sound by Choris Peninsula and Chamisso Island.

It is located on the northern coast of the Seward Peninsula, 45 miles southwest of Selawik, Kotzebue-Kobuk Low.{{coord|66|18|29|N|161|19|02|W|scale:1000000|display=title}}

Eschscholtz Bay was discovered and named in 1816 by Lt. Otto von Kotzebue after his ship's physician, Dr. Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz.{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n119 120]}}

The Inuit name of this bay has not been reported, but it was a traditional beluga hunting ground for the local people of the area.{{cite journal|last=Huntington|first=Henry P.|url=http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic52-1-49.pdf|title=Traditional Knowledge of the Ecology of Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in the Eastern Chukchi and Northern Bering Seas, Alaska|date=March 1999|work=Artic|volume=52|number=1|pages=49-61|publisher=Arctic Institute of North America at University of Calgary|access-date=7 November 2007|doi=10.14430/arctic909}}