is a bay located within

Aomori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...

, in the northern

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

of northern

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It has an east-west distance of approximately and a north-south distance of approximately at its eastern end, with a total area of approximately .

Names

''Mutsu Bay'' is the dominant English term used in English for the body of water; however, it has historically been referred to as the ''Gulf of Mutsu''. The Japanese name for the body of water is .

Geography

Mutsu Bay is bordered by the

Tsugaru Peninsula The is a peninsula in Aomori Prefecture, at the northern end of Honshū island, Japan. The peninsula projects north into the Tsugaru Strait separating Honshū from Hokkaidō. The western coast is on the Sea of Japan, while on its eastern coast ...

to the west and the Shimokita Peninsula to the east and north. It has an east-west distance of approximately and a north-south distance of approximately at its eastern end, with a total area of approximately . The outlet of the bay is the wide Tairadate Strait which connects Mutsu Bay to the

Tsugaru Strait The is a strait between Honshu and Hokkaido in northern Japan connecting the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean. It was named after the western part of Aomori Prefecture. The Seikan Tunnel passes under it at its narrowest point 12.1 miles ...

separating the islands of

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

and

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

. The bay has an average depth of , with a maximum depth of near its outlet to the Tsugaru Strait. Mutsu Bay includes Aomori Bay in the southwest, Noheji Bay in the southeast, and Ōminato Bay to the northeast.

Resources

Economically, the shallow waters of the bay are an important fishery, with the cultivation of

scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve molluscs in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related famili ...

s predominating. Other products commercially harvested include

Sea cucumber Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class (biology), class Holothuroidea ( ). They are benthic marine animals found on the sea floor worldwide, and the number of known holothuroid species worldwide is about 1,786, with the greatest number be ...

Olive flounder The olive flounder (''Paralichthys olivaceus''), bastard halibut, Japanese flounder or Korean halibut is a temperate marine species of large-tooth flounder native to the North-western Pacific Ocean. It is the highest valued finfish in the world, ...

and

Ascidiacea Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians or sea squirts, is a paraphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer test or "tunic" made of the polysacchari ...

. The fisheries were severely damaged by the 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves. In the year 2002, the Ministry of the Environment classified some

tidal flat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...

s of the eastern Mutsu Bay shoreline to be one of the 500 Important Wetlands in Japan.

Pacific white-sided dolphin The Pacific white-sided dolphin (''Lagenorhynchus obliquidens''), also known as the hookfin porpoise, is an active dolphin found in the cool or temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy The Pacific white-sided dolphin was named by Sm ...

s are regular migrants into the bay annually, and

whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. ...

and surveys using ferries have been conducted.Kiyokawa H.. 2016
Study on the Migratory Behavior of Pacific White-Sided Dolphin Lagenorhynchus obliquidens in The Mutsu Bay, Aomori Prefecture
(pdf). Journal of

Aomori University is a private university Private universities and private colleges are higher education institutions not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. However, they often receive tax breaks, public student loans, and government gra ...

Multidisciplinary Research Institute. Vol.17, No.2, pp.12-25. Retrieved on March 25, 2017

Gallery

File:Aomori Bay Asamushi Onsen Japan02bs5.jpg, Mutsu Bay from Asamushi Onsen File:Mutsu bay 陸奥湾 (2973091461).jpg, Mutsu Bay File:Aomori Bay 17-Sept-2018 p2.jpg, The southern part of Mutsu Bay as seen from the air over the Tsugaru Peninsula. Aomori Bay is in the center of the photograph with Noheji Bay in the top left corner.

References

Notes

{{Authority control Bays of Japan Tourist attractions in Aomori Prefecture Landforms of Aomori Prefecture Mutsu, Aomori Aomori (city) Yokohama, Aomori Noheji, Aomori Hiranai, Aomori Sotogahama, Aomori