HrÃsey
Hrísey is a small island three kilometers off the north coast of Iceland with 186 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2009).
The island is located in the Eyjafjörður, about 35 kilometers from the town of Akureyri, to which it also belongs administratively since 2004. Previously, the island was ( with pre-aged rocks ) a separate municipality ( Hríseyjarhreppur ).
The island region has a size of 7.67 square kilometers, a length of 7.5 kilometers and at its widest point, a width of 2.5 kilometers. This makes it the second largest island after Heimaey Iceland's coast. The highest elevation of the island is 110 m. 60 meters north of the rock Eyjarhalar is upstream, with a surface area of about one hectare.
You reach the island in about 15 minutes by ferry from Ásskógssandur.
History
Since the settlement of Iceland, the island is always inhabited.
In the 19th century the fishermen Jörundur Jónsson began with the shark hunting; a monument near the church remembers him. As a result, the island was first used by later Norwegians and Swedes, by the Icelanders themselves as the basis for the Fishing Industry. In the late 19th century, a salt herring factory was located on the island. In the 1960s, it came as a result of overfishing of the Icelandic waters to a downturn, the last fish freezing plant closed in 1999.
Hrísey has earned a reputation as Vogelbeobachtungsort recently. Due to a lack of natural enemies Hrísey is a breathing space for the birds.
The northern part of the island, Ystabæjarland, is a privately owned nature reserve and the killing of birds is prohibited on the rest of the island. Among the approximately 40 species of birds there are about the ptarmigan, the Arctic Tern and Eider.