Raet National Park ( no, Raet nasjonalpark) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

Arendal Arendal () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county in southeastern Norway. Arendal belongs to the Districts of Norway, region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the munici ...

Tvedestrand is municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative center is the town of Tvedestrand. There are many villages in the municipality including Dypvåg, Fiane, Gjeving, Gødders ...

and

Grimstad Grimstad () is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It belongs to the geographical region of Sørlandet. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of Grimstad. Some of the villages in Grimstad include Eide, Espenes, Fevik, ...

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("south ...

, southeastern Norway. It is mostly a marine park, and includes some islands and coastal areas. Raet covers an area of , of which is sea and is land. The park was established on 16 December 2016.

Raet

Raet National Park is named for the long

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

formed by the retreat of a huge

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

about 12,000 years ago, which dumped an enormous quantity of boulders, pebbles, gravel, sand and clay that it had picked up over the centuries. This quaternary geological formation can be traced all over Scandinavia; in Raet National Park it is partly on land and partly under the sea. Pebble beaches are characteristic in areas where the material is graded by heavy seas, but in more protected areas, the moraine forms fine sandy beaches that are attractive to bathers, as occur at

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

Tromøya Tromøya () or Tromøy () (historic: ''Tromø'') is the largest island in Southern Norway. The island is entirely located in the municipality of Arendal in Agder county, Norway. The island has about 5,300 residents (in 2015) which gives it a p ...

and on the island of

Merdø Merdø is an island in Arendal municipality in Agder county, Norway. The island lies along the Skagerrak coast, near the entrance to the Galtesundet, the main shipping channel leading to the town of Arendal on the mainland. The islands of Tro ...

. Further inland there is farmland in many places, but these areas are outside the park's boundaries. The coastal towns of

and

offer accommodation and facilities to visitors to the park. Jerkholmen is a small island in the national park that mainly consists of moraine material. A very special place in Raet National Park is the small pebble island of Måen (130 m long) east of Tromøy. Here the top of the ridge is so far up above the sea surface that it forms a small, unstable island of pebbles. Many ships have sunk in this area, which is known as a ships' graveyard. Raet continues east from Raet National Park to Jomfruland National Park in Telemark and on to Mølen in Vestfold.

Marine area

The sea in this area is shallow and exposed to currents which move westwards along the coast. The seabed has areas of rock and others of sand and gravel, particularly in the more sheltered areas. In rocky areas there are forests of kelp and a wide variety of fish and invertebrates but in more protected locations,

eelgrass Eelgrass is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * ''Zostera'', marine eelgrass * ''Vallisneria ''Vallisneria'' (named in honor of Antonio Vallisneri) is a genus of freshwater aquatic plant, commonly called eelgrass, tape grass o ...

es dominate.

Land area

The coastal land area included in the park includes rocky, shingly and sandy shores and a number of wetland habitats, including the brackish water of the Nidelva delta. There is rich bird life in the park, including both resident species and migratory birds travelling between their winter quarters and their breeding grounds.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raet National Park National parks of Norway Protected areas established in 2016 2016 establishments in Norway Arendal Tvedestrand Grimstad