Mutsu Bay 2.47

Mutsu Bay is a bay in Aomori Prefecture, in the northern Tohoku region of northern Japan. It is bordered by the Tsugaru Peninsula to the west, the Shimokita Peninsula to the east and north, with an east-west distance of approximately 40km and a north-south distance of approximately 40km at its eastern end, with a total area of approximately 1667.89sqkm. The outlet of the bay is the 14km wide Tairadate Strait which connects Mutsu Bay to the Tsugaru Strait separating the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. The bay has an average depth of 40m to 45m, with a maximum depth of 70m 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.Economically, the shallow waters of the bay are an important fishery, with the cultivation of scallops predominating. Other products commercially harvested include Sea cucumber, Olive flounder and Ascidiacea. 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 flats of the eastern Mutsu Bay shoreline to be one of the 500 Important Wetlands in Japan.