Kvalsund is a municipality

Municipalities of Norway

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...

 in Finnmark

Finnmark

or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...

 county

Counties of Norway

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kvalsund. Kvalsund was separated from the municipality of Sørøysund

Sørøysund

Sørøysund is a former municipality in Finnmark county in Norway. It is located in the present-day municipality of Hammerfest. The former municipality encompassed the eastern part of the island of Sørøya, the northern part of the island of Seiland, and the northern part of Kvaløya .-Name:The name...

 on 1 July 1869.

The Kvalsund Bridge

Kvalsund Bridge

Kvalsund Bridge is a suspension bridge in Kvalsund municipality that crosses Kvalsundet from the mainland to Kvaløya in Finnmark county in Norway. Opened for traffic in 1977, the bridge is long, the main span is , and the maximum clearance to the sea is...

 (Kvalsundbrua) is a suspension bridge

Suspension bridge

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...

 that crosses Kvalsundet from the mainland to the island of Kvaløya

Kvaløya, Finnmark

Kvaløya is an island in Finnmark county, North Norway. Its area is . It is situated in the municipalities of Hammerfest and Kvalsund. The city of Hammerfest is located in the western part of the island....

.

Since 2007, the mayor of Kvalsund is Tor Arvid Myrseth, who represents the Kvalsund Social Democrats.

Name

The Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

 form of the name was Hvalsund. The first element is hvalr which means "whale

Whale

Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...

" and the last element is sund which means "strait

Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, typically navigable channel of water that connects two larger, navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not...

" or "sound

Sound (geography)

In geography a sound or seaway is a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight and wider than a fjord; or it may be defined as a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land ....

". The Sámi name also translates to Whale (fáles) Strait (nuorri).

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is from modern times. They were granted on 27 March 1987. The arms show three silver-colored salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

 arranged in a pall

Pall (heraldry)

A pall is a Y-shaped heraldic charge. An example of a pall placed horizontally is the green portion of the Flag of South Africa....

 on a blue background. The salmon represents fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 in various forms: as a traditional way of living and source of income, as modern fish farming

Fish farming

Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases young fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species'...

, and as a recreational activity.

(See also coat-of-arms for Grane, Mandal, Nordreisa

Nordreisa

Nordreisa is a municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Storslett.The municipality consists of the valley of Reisadalen, with the Reisa river and deep pine forests, surrounded by mountains and high plateaus. Most people live in...

.)

Settlements

The main village is also called Kvalsund, but was earlier called Finnbyen - a name meaning simply "Coast Sámi

Sami people

The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...

 settlement". The Sámi name is Ráhkkerávju, which is untranslatable. Other villages in the municipality include Skáidi ("rivers' meeting-place" in Sámi), Stállugárgu ("troll beach", commonly written Stallogargo in Norwegian), Næverfjord - the Sámi name of which is Návvuotna - and Kokelv (Sámi: Guoikejohka). Regarding the latter toponyms, the Næverfjord translates to "tinder fiord" and Návvuotna to "cowshed fiord"; while Kokelv is "boiling river" in Norwegian and Guiokejohka means "rushing river" in Sámi.

Lakes in the region include Bjørnstadvatnet

Bjørnstadvatnet

Bjørnstadvatnet is a lake in the municipality of Kvalsund in Finnmark county, Norway....

.

Culture

Aboriginal culture

Until a few hundred years ago, Coast Sámi culture was completely dominant in Kvalsund. Norwegian and Kven immigration soon made the area multicultural. During Norwegianization

Norwegianization

Norwegianization is a term used to described the official government policy carried out by the Norwegian government against the Sami and later the Kven people of northern Norway to assimilate non-Norwegian-speaking native populations into an ethnically and culturally uniform Norwegian population...

 much of the traditional culture was lost. Kokelv is the village that has most successfully preserved elements of Sámi culture, and today has a Coast Sámi museum. The gakti

Gakti

Gakti or gákti, as it is written in Northern Sámi, is a piece of traditional clothing worn by the Sámi in northern areas of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The gákti is worn both in ceremonial contexts and while working, particularly when herding reindeer...

 of the Kvalsund region is easily recognizable by dots and jags on the collars (for men) and sleeves (for women).

Fægstock

The municipality hosts an annual rock festival known as Fægstock, which takes place in Fægfjord (Sámi: Veaigesvuotna, "twilight fiord").

Birdlife

The municipality of Kvalsund has several localities that have a rich and varied bird fauna. One of these is Repparfjordbotn with its large colony of Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern

The Arctic Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America...

s and its autumn numbers of Goosander.