Coastal Culture

Life by the Arctic Ocean has molded Varanger's culture. People have always lived from the fruits of the sea, and this becomes clear when you see where people live in Varanger - in the coastal regions. When they settled here, it was important for them to be near to the sea. In some places the women farmed the land while the men were fishing out on the sea.

Fishing from small boats has always been an important part of life here, and this continues today. This type of fishing also calls for a great deal of activity on land. The landed fish needed to be gutted and then salted or hung up to dry. Lines had to be repaired before the next fishing trip. In the high season, there were flocks of people involved in this work, and children were even taken out of school to help. In villages like Hamningberg and Ekkerøy, the population increased significantly in the spring fishing season. When motorised boats appeared on the scene, many of the smaller communities disappeared, but traces of them can still be found.