The story summed up The Saltstraumen in Bodø is one of the world’s strongest tidal currents and a popular tourist destination. MDG and other political parties in Bodø wish to apply for world heritage status for Saltstraumen. The daily manager at Saltstraumen Brygge fears that world heritage status will harm the company and the local community. The MDG believes that world heritage status will contribute to less littering and better protection of the species in the stream. Japan and Scotland also have strong tidal currents. They wish to collaborate on a joint application for World Heritage status. The National Antiquities Office points out that it is a long and demanding process to obtain world heritage status, and that Norway is restrictive in nominating new areas. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. The salt current in Bodø is one of the world’s strongest tidal currents. He is so spectacular that tourists flock to him for large parts of the year. Then some of them rent a cabin, boat and fishing equipment at Saltstraumen Brygge. – We have full houses with many boats out and fishermen who come from all over the world, says daily manager Bjørn-Tore Zahl. He believes that the company is in danger if the proposal to apply for world heritage status goes through. But the Green Party does not agree. They believe that a status as a world heritage city will be important to save life in the current. Fishing hooks and fishing line are a death trap for many animals in and around Saltstraumen. This has been documented several times by divers. Photo: Vebjørn Karlsen / Eight places in Norway currently have world heritage status. Now the MDG will see if it is possible to get Saltstraumen on the same list as the Great Wall of China and the pyramids in Egypt. My world heritage status means less litter – This is unique and wonderful. We must ensure that Saltstraumen gets the attention it needs. Then we think it is right to put him on the world heritage list, says party leader in MDG, Arild Hermstad. He believes that the status can ensure less littering and that the species in the stream are better taken care of. – We know that we have to manage and take care of the catfish and other species here in a more sustainable way, says party leader in MDG, Arild Hermstad. Photo: Bente H. Johansen / news Political forces in Bodø also want to sort out the area as a candidate for the list. MDG, the Labor Party, Rødt and SV have in a joint proposal asked municipal director Kjell Hugvik to sort this out. – Do you understand that local businesses find this problematic? – I have an understanding of local businesses. I think we need to have a dialogue. I also think that we can find common interests in how we manage it so that it can last forever and not exploit the resource base too much, says Hermstad. – Goes beyond society But it is not only in Saltstraumen that the world heritage status is a seed for conflict. As the only town in Nordland for the time being, Vegaøyan has been on the list since 2004. And for just as long there has been conflict between politicians and citizens. The conflict peaked when Unesco tried to stop the world’s largest farming company, Mowi, from setting up inside the world heritage site. – If you delimit commercial activities, it goes beyond society. Then people will move from here. I don’t see anything positive about being on that list, says daily manager Bjørn-Tore Zahl at Saltstraumen brygge. World Heritage in Norway Norway has eight sites on UNESCO’s list of cultural and natural heritage in the world: Bryggen in Bergen (1979) Urnes Stave Church (1979) Røros Bergstad and Circumferensen (1980 and expanded in 2010) Mountain Art in Alta (1985) Vegaøyan (2004) Struve’s meridian arc – four Norwegian points (2005) West Norwegian fjord landscape – Geirangerfjorden and Nerøyfjorden (2005) Rjukan-Notodden industrial heritage (2015) The first four Norwegian World Heritage cities are cultural cities. In 2004, Norway got its first cultural landscape on the list – Vegaøyan. West Norwegian fjord landscape is the first natural area Norway has received on the list. In addition, there are three, soon to be four, entries on UNESCO’s list of global geoparks. Source: Unesco.no In 2013, the Saltstraumen became a maritime conservation area, and Zahl thinks that is enough. – We don’t need world heritage status for us to be able to take care of what is our livelihood, he says. What Zahl fears is that a world heritage status will mean that Saltstraumen will become an open-air museum where you cannot run a business. – In the worst case, we will not be able to operate fishing tourism. We want growth. More people moving in, so that the school and the shop in the village will continue. – We have a lot of self-discipline with this on defense. We show the tourists who come how to take care of things, that they should not litter and take care of fish, says Bjørn Tore Zahl, daily manager at Saltstraumen Brygge. Photo: Bente H. Johansen / news According to senior advisor Ole Søe Eriksen at the National Antiquities Authority, the disadvantage of a world heritage status is that it must be looked after with a perspective for the future. – A place on the list means that Norway, as well as local and regional authorities, must make clear value choices for land and resource use, which will also apply in the future. It is important not to destroy the natural and cultural values, Several tonnes of waste Several tonnes of equipment lie in Saltstraumen after tourists and anglers have visited. Much of this is picked up by divers, but neither do they believe that a World Heritage status will make things better. – Since there is now a conservation zone here, we can protect the catfish, but it is not certain that it will be good with the protection of all other fish, says Jan Gunnar Berg, a diver in the Bodø diving club. They have cleared the Saltstraumen since 2005. – We know that there is far too much fishing in the Saltstraumen, so we should have some limits. Jan Gunnar Berg from the Bodø sports diving club believes there is too much fishing in Saltstraumen. Many of the fishing boats become death traps for animals in the sea. Photo: Bente H. Johansen / news Riksantikvaren: – Hang very high But it is not only easy to get the status of world heritage, even if the politicians in Bodø decide to sort it out. – Official Norwegian policy is very restrictive in nominating new areas to the world heritage list, says senior advisor Eriksen at the National Archives. Status as a world heritage site is the highest international stamp of quality an area can receive, according to Eriksen in the Riksantikvaren. This entails a requirement to secure the world heritage sites in the best possible way for posterity. Photo: Vebjørn Karlsen In Norway, the emphasis is on securing the world heritage we already have rather than adding new areas to the list. In addition, it is a long process to get on the list. – It hangs very high, and all Unesco’s criteria must be met. The area must be the best example in the world within a cultural or natural science theme, says Eriksen. Japan is waiting for Bodø Håkon Møller, manager of MDG in Bodø, says the big discussions about protection versus growth were already started before 2013, when the stream was given the status of a marine protected area. 33 kilometers outside the center of Bodø lies the Saltstraumen – one of the world’s strongest tidal currents. The strait is 2.2 kilometers long. Photo: Dina Storvik / news – Why is it so important to get the stream onto UNESCO’s world heritage list? – We have a responsibility as a world municipality for this wonderful natural area, to ensure that the values are passed on to future generations, he says. – World heritage status will be a good seal of quality for Saltstraumen as a destination, says the head of Bodø MDG, Håkon Møller. Photo: Andreas Nilsen Trygstad Møller believes this will be a good pilot project that shows what development within the framework of nature and the environment actually entails. But it is not only political parties in Bodø who want this. So do the Japanese. Saltstraumen is a lovely fishing town. More than 25,000 tourists come here every year to fish. Photo: Bente H. Johansen / news The scholars argue over what is the world’s strongest tidal current. In Norway we point to the Salt Current, but in Japan and Scotland they have their own currents which they think are the strongest. – They want cooperation on a joint initiative to be seen on the world heritage list, says Møller. – I think we should thank and bow for that, and say yes to working together on this.
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MDG wants the Saltstraumen on the Unesco world heritage list – news Nordland
