Austevoll

4856 ( March 31, 2013 )

Austevoll is an island municipality in the Norwegian Fylke Hordaland. It lies on the North Sea and is surrounded by the municipalities in the North Sound, Os in the northeast, Tysnes in the east and in the south Fitjar. The community consists of 667 large and small islands. The administrative center of the municipality is located in Storebø, its largest city by population.

Fishing is the main industry for generations of the community. Since the 1980s, fish farming is growing in the sea and today the municipality is counted among those with the largest salmon farming.

In Austevoll is a fisheries technical school, and the Norwegian Marine Research Institute has a department in Austevoll. One of the largest offshore supply shipping companies of Norway ( District Offshore ASA) has Storebø principal place of business.

On the small island belonging to the municipality Store Marstone is the built in 1877 Marstein lighthouse that marks the entrance to the Korsfjord and thus the southern access road to Bergen and the northern access to the Hardangerfjord.