Austevoll is a municipality and an archipelago in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Midthordland in Western Norway. The

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

is the village of

Storebø Storebø is the administrative centre and largest village in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the northern part of the island of Huftarøy, just south of the village of Birkeland and northwest of the v ...

on the island of Huftarøy. Other villages include

Årland Årland is a village in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion ...

Austevollshella Austevollshella or Austevoll is a village in Austevoll municipality, Norway. Austevollshella is located on the southeastern coast of the island of Hundvåko. The Austevoll Bridge, which connects Hundvåko and Huftarøy islands, is located at Aus ...

Bakkasund Bakkasund is a village in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portio ...

Bekkjarvik Bekkjarvik is a village in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern coast of the island of Selbjørn. The village has a population (2019) of 577 and a population density of . The village is ...

Birkeland Birkeland may refer to: Places *Birkeland, Agder, the administrative centre of Birkenes municipality in Agder county, Norway *Birkeland Church, a church in the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway * Birkeland, Vestland, a village in Austevoll ...

Haukanes Haukanes is a village in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern coast of the island of Huftarøy Huftarøy is the largest island in the municipality of Austevoll in Vestland county, Norway. ...

, Husavik, Kolbeinsvik, Otterå, Våge, and

Vinnes Vinnes is a village in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on Vestre Vinnesvåg area on the southeastern shore of the island of Huftarøy Huftarøy is the largest island in the municipality of Austevoll in ...

. The municipality consists of hundreds of islands located southwest of the city of Bergen. The municipality is considered to be among the ports in the world with the largest ocean-going fishing trawler fleet. Since the 1980s, the

offshore oil industry Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...

and fish farming industry have both grown to be important industries in Austevoll. The municipality is the 323rd largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Austevoll is the 175th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 5,283. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 10.2% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

The municipality of Austevoll was established on 1 January 1886 when it was separated from the municipality of Sund. The initial population for the new municipality of Austevoll was 2,396. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the southern part of the islands of

Selbjørn Selbjørn is an island in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island is the second largest in the municipality (after Huftarøy). Most of the population lives along the northern and eastern coastlines of the island. The comm ...

and Huftarøy (population: 696) was transferred from Fitjar Municipality to Austevoll. This put the whole Austevoll archipelago in the municipality of Austevoll.

Name

The municipality is named after the old ''Austevoll'' farm ( non, Austrvǫllr), since this was the old site of the Austevoll Church. The farm is now part of the village of

. The first element is ''austr'' which means "east" and the last element is ''vǫllr'' which means " meadow". The municipality has changed the spelling of its name three times. Before 1889 the name was written ''"Østevold"'' or ''"Østervold"''. From 1889 to 1917, it was spelled ''"Austevold"'', and since 1918 it has been spelled ''"Austevoll"''.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms were granted on 30 November 1984. The arms are blue with four silver-colored fish swimming up to the left. The

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

was chosen for the arms since herring fishing is a very important part of the local economy.

Churches

The

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

has one parish () within the municipality of Austevoll. It is part of the Fana prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

) in the

Diocese of Bjørgvin The Diocese of Bjørgvin ( no, Bjørgvin bispedømme) is one of the 11 dioceses that make up the Church of Norway. It includes all of the churches located in the county of Vestland in Western Norway. The cathedral city is Bergen, Norway's second ...

Geography

Austevoll consists of 667 islands off the west coast of Western Norway. The municipality has a total land area of and a coastline of . It lies south of the Korsfjorden, west of the

Bjørnafjorden Bjørnafjorden is a fjord in Vestland county, Norway. It runs through the municipalities of Austevoll, Bjørnafjorden, and Tysnes. The large island of Tysnesøya (and many small, surrounding islands such as Reksteren) lie along the south side ...

, and north of the Selbjørnsfjorden. The highest point in Austevoll is the mountain Loddo, reaching above sea level. The

Marstein Lighthouse Marstein Lighthouse ( no, Marstein fyrstasjon) is an active lighthouse in the municipality of Austevoll, in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the small island of Store Marstein just west of the island of Stora Kalsøy on the south side o ...

lies in the northwestern part of the municipality.

Largest islands

# Huftarøy #

# Hundvåko #

Stolmen Stolmen is an island in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island lies in a large archipelago just north of the Selbjørnsfjorden. The island of Selbjørn lies to the east, the islands of Huftarøy and Hundvåko lie to th ...

Storekalsøy Storekalsøy or Stora Kalsøy is an island in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island lies northwest of the larger island of Hundvåko and just east of the Marstein Lighthouse. The northern part of the island is very roc ...

Møkster Møkster is an island in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island lies in an archipelago and it sits north of the islands of Litla Kalsøya, Stolmen, and Selbjørn; west of the islands of Drøna and Rostøya; and south o ...

Neighbours

The island municipality shares water borders with the municipality of

Øygarden Øygarden is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is an island municipality located in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Midhordland, stretching along the west coast of the cou ...

to the north, Bergen and

municipalities to the northeast, Tysnes municipality to the east, and Fitjar and Bømlo municipalities to the south. The North Sea lies to the west of Austevoll.

Demographics

Of the 667 islands, only eight are populated year-round. About 29% of the inhabitants live in densely populated areas. About 28% of the inhabitants are under the age of 17, which is 4.4% over the national average. About 4.7% of the inhabitants are 80 years or older.

Villages

Inhabited islands

Gallery

File:Bekkjarviksundet.JPG, Bekkjarviksundet, between

and Huftarøy. File:Marstein lighthouse.JPG,

File:Stolmasundet.JPG, Stolmasundet, between

and

. File:Olav fra Austevold kirke.jpg, Olaf II of Norway from Austevoll Church,

Industry

Fishing is the most important industry in Austevoll, as it has been for centuries. Traditionally, fishing has taken place in coastal areas, not far off shore. After decades of

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

, the

disappeared in the 1950s. This forced a restructuring of the fishing fleet. Since the 1960s, the shipping companies built bigger ships, and went further out into the seas, and they began fishing for other fish species, not just herring. The overfishing of herring also forced better research on fishing, resulting in the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research. Austevoll is the home of the Austevoll Aquaculture Research Station. Since the early 1980s, the offshore supply industry has emerged in the wake of the offshore Norwegian oil industry. The offshore shipping company

DOF DOF may stand for: Science * Depth of field, in photography a measurement of depth of acceptable sharpness in the object space, or subject space * Depth of focus, in lens optics describes the tolerance of placement of the image plane to the lens * ...

, which is listed on the

Oslo Stock Exchange Oslo Stock Exchange ( no, Oslo Børs) (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway’s only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, deriv ...

, has its headquarters at

Education

There are five primary schools and one middle school in Austevoll, all run by the municipality. There is also one

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

, teaching mainly fishing and nautical subjects. This is operated by the

Hordaland County Municipality Hordaland County Municipality ( no, Hordaland fylkeskommune) was the regional governing administration of the old Hordaland county in Norway. The county municipality was established in its most recent form on 1 January 1976 when the law was change ...

Transportation

Austevoll has car ferry connections from Hufthammar on the north tip of Huftarøy to Krokeide in Bergen, and from Husavik on the south tip of Huftarøy to Sandvikvåg in Fitjar. The municipality is also connected by express boats to Bergen in the north, and Stord,

Haugesund Haugesund () is a municipality on the North Sea in Rogaland county, Norway. While the population is greater in the neighboring Karmøy municipality, the main commercial and economic centre of the Haugaland region in northern Rogaland and southern ...

, and

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

in the south. All express boat routes are operated by Norled, and ferry routes are operated by Fosen Namsos. The islands of Huftarøy and Selbjørn, Selbjørn and Stolmen, and Hundvåkøy and Storekalsøy are connected with bridges. A fourth bridge, connecting Huftarøy and Hundvåkøy, was opened on 17 November 2007. This bridge, which in fact consists of two bridges and two stone fillings, bears the name "Austevollsbrua".

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Austevoll, are responsible for

primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wiktionary:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physical and menta ...

, senior citizen services, unemployment and other

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...

, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor. The municipality falls under the Hordaland District Court and the

Gulating Court of Appeal The Gulating Court of Appeal ( no, Gulating lagmannsrett) is one of six Court of appeal (Norway), courts of appeal in the Norway, Kingdom of Norway. The Court is located in the city of Bergen (city), Bergen. The court has jurisdiction over the cou ...

Municipal council

The municipal council () of Austevoll is made up of 21 representatives that are elected to four year terms. From 1995 to 1999 the Socialist Left Party held one seat. In the 1999-2003 election period an all-party female electoral list held one seat in the council. In the 2003-2007 election period The Liberal Party was represented in the municipal council and held one seat. From 2011 to 2015, a coalition of the Progress Party and Center Party held power in the council. The coalition also consisted of the Christian Democratic Party before 2011. In 2011, the coalition won 12 of the 21 seats in the municipal council and had an electoral and political cooperation. The

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, Labour Party, and Christian Democratic Party make up the opposition. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:

Mayor

The following is a list of mayors of Austevoll:

Notable residents

* Abelone Møgster, (Norwegian Wiki) (1883 in Austevoll - 1975)

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

and

Norwegian resistance The Norwegian resistance (Norwegian: ''Motstandsbevegelsen'') to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms: *Asserting the legitimacy of the exiled government, ...

fighter * Magnus Stangeland (born 1941 in Austevoll) politician, mayor of Austevoll and entrepreneur *

Knut Fagerbakke Knut Fagerbakke (born 4 April 1952) is a Norwegian politician for the Socialist Left Party. Since 2003 he is the deputy mayor of Trondheim, Norway's third largest city. Before becoming a full-time politician he worked as a consultant A cons ...

(born 1952) a Norwegian politician,

Deputy Mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor, assistant mayor, or mayor ''pro tem'') is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many, but not all, local governments. Duties and functions Many elected dep ...

of Trondheim *

Ole Rasmus Møgster Ole Rasmus Møgster (10 July 1958 – 23 February 2010) was a Norwegian businessperson. Together with his brother Helge Møgster he built up the companies Austevoll Seafood (which Ole Rasmus controlled, as a major owner and chairman of the boa ...

(1958 – 2010) a Norwegian businessperson with

Austevoll Seafood Austevoll Seafood ASA is a major Norwegian seafood company. Austevoll Seafood trades publicly on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The company is a majority owner of Norwegian seafood company Lerøy. The company is a majority owner of Peruvian seafood ...

* Jan Bertin Østervold, (Norwegian Wiki) (born 1966 in Skien) known as ''Jan Thomas'',

stylist Stylist can refer to: Occupations * Automotive stylist or car stylist, a person involved in designing the appearance and ergonomics of automobiles * Food stylist, a person who makes food look attractive in photographs * Hair stylist, a person w ...

and actor *

Claus Lundekvam Claus Lundekvam (born 22 February 1973) is a Norwegian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a centre-back. Lundekvam began his career with SK Brann, Brann before moving to English side Southampton F.C., Southampton ...

(born 1973) former footballer with 410 club caps and 40 for Norway *

Helge André Njåstad Helge André Njåstad (born 5 June 1980) is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party. He was elected to the Parliament of Norway from Hordaland in 2013 where he serves as the chair of the Standing Committee on Local Government and Public Adm ...

(born 1980) a Norwegian politician, Mayor of Austevoll 2003 to 2013

1920 Summer Olympics sailors

* Ole Olsen Østervold (1872–1936) * Halvor Olai Møgster (1875–1950) * Jan Olsen Østervold (1876–1945) *

Henrik Østervold Henrik Østervold (13 January 1878 – 21 August 1957) was a Norwegian sailor who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische ...

(1878 in Austevoll – 1957) * Kristian Olsen Østervold (1885–1960) * Rasmus Ingvald Birkeland (1888–1972) * Halvor Olai Birkeland (1894–1971)

References

External links

* * *
Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway ( no, Statistisk sentralbyrå, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every yea ...

The gavl-boat "Notmann" sailing under the Selbjørn bridge

3-mountain hike in Austevoll in 10 minutes

Kayaking in Austevoll

Diving in Austevoll
*AustevollGuide - TourInfo - http://www.austevollguide.no {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2013 Municipalities of Vestland 1886 establishments in Norway Fishing communities in Norway