or is a small

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

with one of the strongest

tidal current Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

s in the world. It is located in

Bodø Municipality Bodø (; , ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Bodø (town ...

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 ...

. It is located about southeast of the town of Bodø. The narrow channel connects the outer

Saltfjorden or is a fjord in Bodø Municipality and Gildeskål Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The long fjord begins around the Fleinvær islands; travels northeast past the islands of Sørarnøya, Sandhornøya, and Straumøya islands; along t ...

to the large

Skjerstad Fjord or is a fjord in the municipalities of Bodø, Fauske, and Saltdal in Nordland county, Norway. It is a arm off of the main Saltfjorden. It is connected to the Saltfjorden by the narrow Saltstraumen strait, which has very strong tidal currents. ...

between the islands of Straumøya and Knaplundsøya. The

Saltstraumen Bridge The Saltstraumen Bridge () is a cantilever box girder bridge that crosses the Saltstraumen strait between the islands of Knaplundsøya and Straumøya in Bodø Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The bridge spans across the Saltfjorden fro ...

Norwegian County Road 17 County Road 17 (), also known as the Coastal Highway (), is a Norwegian highway that runs from the town of Bodø in Nordland county (in the north) to the town of Steinkjer in Trøndelag county (in the south). It is long and includes six ferry ...

crosses Saltstraumen.

Current

Saltstraumen has one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. Up to of seawater forces its way through a long and wide strait every six hours.

Vortices In fluid dynamics, a vortex (: vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...

known as

whirlpool A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...

s or

maelstrom Maelstrom may refer to: * Maelstrom (whirlpool), a powerful whirlpool ** originally the Moskstraumen in English Amusement rides * Maelstrom (ride), a former log flume dark ride attraction in the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World Resort ...

s up to in diameter and in depth are formed when the current is at its strongest. At this point, one source claims that the tidal current can reach . Saltstraumen has existed for about two to three thousand years. Before that, the area was different due to

post-glacial rebound Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound an ...

. The current is created when the tide tries to fill Skjerstad Fjord. The height difference between the

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

and the fjord inside can be up to . When the current turns, there is a period when the strait is navigable. The above account of the Saltstraumen is rather different than what The Norwegian Pilot reports. The Pilot’s description of the normal current is based on the time of the high tide at Bodø. The greatest southbound current occurs about one and a quarter hours before Bodø high tide, when the inflowing current reaches about . The speed of the current has a broad maximum being greater than from three hours before Bodø high tide until half an hour after Bodø high tide. The greatest northbound current occurs about four and a half hours after Bodø high tide, when the outflowing current reaches over . The speed of this current also has a broad maximum being above six knots from two hours and forty minutes after Bodø high tide until five and a half hours before the next Bodø high tide. The behavior of the current may differ from normal due to strong winds or when more fresh water than usual is entering into the fjord from the surrounding mountains.

Fishing

Saltstraumen is popular with anglers, due to its abundance of fish such as

saithe ''Pollachius virens'' is a species of marine fish in the genus '' Pollachius''. Together with '' P. pollachius'', it is generally referred to in the United States as pollock. It is commonly known in Britain as the coalfish, coley, or saithe ( or ...

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

wolffish Anarhichadidae, the wolffishes, sea wolves or wolf eels, is a family of marine ray finned fishes belonging to the order Perciformes. These are predatory, eel shaped fishes which are native to the cold waters of the Arctic, North Pacific and Nor ...

rose fish ''Sebastes norvegicus'', the rose fish, rock fish, ocean perch, Atlantic redfish, Norway haddock, golden redfish, pinkbelly rosefish, Norway seaperch, Scottish seaperch or bergylt, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfami ...

, and

halibut Halibut is the common name for three species of flatfish in the family of right-eye flounders. In some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish are also referred to as halibut. The word is derived from ''haly'' (holy) and ...

Coalfish ''Pollachius virens'' is a species of marine fish in the genus '' Pollachius''. Together with '' P. pollachius'', it is generally referred to in the United States as pollock. It is commonly known in Britain as the coalfish, coley, or saithe ( or ...

is a specialty of the area. The largest documented coalfish of was caught in Saltstraumen on a fishing rod.

Eider The eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks and some other ducks and geese are used to fill pillows and qu ...

s are the only birds capable of diving for

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

s in the strong stream.

Name

The first element is the name of the district

Salten Salten is a traditional district in Nordland county, Norway. It includes the municipalities of Gildeskål, Bodø, Beiarn, Saltdal, Fauske, Sørfold, Steigen, and Hamarøy. Salten covers an area of about and has a population (2016) of about ...

and the last element is the definite form of ''straum'', meaning "stream" or "water flow".

History

The remains of a 10,000-year-old hunter settlement in the area are the oldest known traces of human settlement in Bodø, and also one of the oldest archaeological discoveries in Norway. These hunters lived on the edge of the ice, attracted by the abundance of fish caused by the strong currents.

Media gallery

Saltstraumen.ogv, alt=Saltstraumen churning, February 2011, Saltstraumen churning, February 2011. Salt_Stommen_Norway_From_Schoolbook_1837.jpg, Saltstraumen 1837. Saltstraumen-60-Kirche-2019-gje.jpg, Saltstraumen church

References

External links

Local Norwegian site with details about the current, in EnglishVisit Norway's guide to Saltstraumen
{{authority control Whirlpools Landforms of Nordland Bodies of water of Norway Bodø Tourist attractions in Nordland Straits of Norway Articles containing video clips