Åkrehamn Coast Museum

About

The museum is situated close to the harbour and has through the last years gone through an extensive restoration. Today the museum is seen as an impressive cultural coastal museum. The museum houses a great number of objects and photographs which shows the past when Karmøy was a great centre for fisherie. A lot of the growth in the 1800s comes from the rich abundance of herring every year outside the coastline for decades. Fishing, salting and export gave a good income.

At the museum you can also see how the contact between the west side of Karmøy and America evolved. In the 1800s and 1900s nearly 25% of Karmøys inhabitants moved to USA. Today there are a great number of descendants in both the East Coast in New Bedford and Fairhaven, but also on the West Coast in Seattle. This emigration to USA has kept on until this day, still there are several inhabitants that commute between Norway and USA.