The granite rock
Ice-polished surfaces at the water's edge.
Carl Normann — Public domain · Bjoertvedt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kyrre — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Anders Fagerjord — CC BY-SA 2.0
A coral that does not depend on the photosynthetic algae feeding tropical reefs, but catches plankton and particles from the currents with its tentacles. So it lives in total darkness at great depth in near-freezing water. It grows extremely slowly — millimetres a year — so the reefs you find are thousands of years old, and damage to them from trawl nets cannot be repaired within a human lifetime. That is the reason for protection.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
Ytre Hvaler is Norway's first **marine** national park, established in 2009 in the Hvaler archipelago at the mouth of the Oslofjord near the Swedish border — and most of its area lies under the water rather than above it. The reason for protection is invisible from the shore: on the sea floor here is the largest known Lophelia coral reef in coastal waters — a cold-water coral growing at a hundred to two hundred metres in total darkness and forming a complete ecosystem. Its discovery is what prompted the park's designation. Above water the landscape is southern Norwegian and quite unlike the fjords: smooth granite rock polished by ice, low and almost treeless islands, red wooden houses, and water warmer than the rest of the coast. The area is the main summer destination for people from Oslo. Access is about two hours by car, then boats between the islands.
Ice-polished surfaces at the water's edge.
The warmest on the Norwegian coast for summer swimming.
Hvaler, Østfold county