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Most codfish bought in Portugal comes from Ålesund. All local businesses are, in one way or the other, connected to the sea – Norway has been using a historic amount of resources on the creation of a true Ocean Economy, functionally directed to research and development of sustainable harvesting of its coast.
Life in Alesund is tough but good. In the peak of Winter there’s hardly any daylight (sunrise at 11 AM, sunset at 2.30 PM, but even on clear days there’s no sun to be seen, as it will be behind / below the mountain on the south side of the fjord) and in the peak of Summer there’s hardly any night (the days of never-darkness, sunrise at 2AM and sunset… well, very-very late).
Whatever their personal level of modern-life sophistication, locals revert to their Viking origins of “hunter-gatherers” in this time of cod migration. The Borgundfjord will be filled, daily, with many boats of all sizes and shapes, and the codfishing is often a family & friends event, with people in borderline celebrative mode. On weekends, weather permitting, the number of boats can be in triple digits, and in these two last anni horribiles of Covid-19, which have challenged even the famed aloofness of Norwegians, the numbers have grown visibly. The hope seems to be that the virus will travel poorly over saltwater. As I said before, it’s a tough, but gloriously good, life.