Bleik is a

fishing village A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000 ...

Andøy Municipality Andøy is the northernmost List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Vesterålen archipelago. The main island in the municipality is Andøya. The administrative centre of the ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

.The village is located on the northwestern part of the island of

Andøya , , or is the northernmost island in the Vesterålen archipelago, situated about inside the Arctic Circle. Andøya is located in Andøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The main population centres on the island include the villages of ...

, about southwest of the village of Andenes. The village has a population (2023) of 456 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of . The triangle-shaped island off the coast is called Bleiksøya. This island is the biggest resort of

puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

s in all of Norway. The lake Bleiksvatnet lies just south of the village. Bleik has one of the longest beaches in Norway, and it is said that the beach is the reason for the village's name. The beach is white, and ''bleik'' is a word for white/pale in the

Norwegian language Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelli ...

. In the village, there is a horse barn, an elementary school, and a grocery store. Tourist information, puffin safari, campsite and a local pub are also present. Bleik is also known for naming the Bleik Canyon, which starts about offshore from the beach of Bleik in the Norwegian Sea. Bleik Canyon is a very deep canyon with depths up to and is the residence of whales and

giant squid The giant squid (''Architeuthis dux'') is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, ...

. It is a popular hotspot for whale safaris because of the presence of

sperm whales The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus '' Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale super ...

Notable residents

Lasse Nilsen Lasse Nilsen (born 21 February 1995) is a Norwegian football defender. He last played for the Eliteserien side Tromsø IL. Career He hails from Bleik and started his youth career in Høken, moving on to Andenes around his early teens. He the ...

, a footballer for

Tromsø IL Tromsø Idrettslag () is a Norwegian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Tromsø. They play their home games at the Romssa Arena which has a seating capacity of 6,801. Tromsø play in the Eliteserien. Despi ...

References

Villages in Nordland Populated places in Nordland Andøy Populated places of Arctic Norway Beaches of Norway {{nordland-geo-stub