Currents aside, they would also have to contend with the freezing cold water of the Arctic Circle, as well as over 600 killer whales rumoured to be roaming the region and the infamous lions mane jellyfish, capable of growing bigger than a human. They knew early on that this would be their greatest challenge yet and the biggest test of their brotherhood. No one had ever attempted either of these swims before, which meant the brothers were truly heading into uncharted waters. They are truly the stuff of literary legend. Made famous by Edgar Allan Poe’s A Descent into the Maelstrom, featured in the climax of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, when Captain Nemo’s submarine, the Nebuchadnezzar, is sucked under the waves and also feared by Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The largest documented coalfish caught by rod in Saltstraumen was 22.Into the Maelstrom became a world first attempt to swim across the two biggest and most powerful whirlpools in the world: the mighty Moskstraumen and Saltstraumen in Norway. Swirling violently off the Norwegian coast, above the Arctic Circle, on the edge of the Lofoten Islands, these two vast whirlpools possess the strongest and fastest tidal currents in the world.The height difference between the sea level and the fjord which the water passes in and out of can be up to 1 meter.The remains of a 10,000-year-old hunter settlement in the area is the oldest known traces of human settlement in Bodø, as well as one of the oldest archaeological discoveries in Norway.Stone Age settlements have been found on both sides of the strait.400 million cubic meters of water pass through the strait every 6 hours.Saltstraumen is the worlds strongest tidal current.Because of the fascinating natural phenomenon that Saltstraumen is, they made a 12-hour long live show about Saltstraumen. You may perhaps know that the Norwegian broadcaster NRK is known for making so-called slow-tv. These early human settlements were probably set up here because of the abundant marine biodiversity associated with the tidal current. Stone Age settlements have also been found on both banks of the Saltstraumen, as well as cultural monuments from the Iron Age. The area is also naturally extremely popular among sports fishermen and divers. The current is extremely abundant in fish and seabirds flock to the area because of this. The area in and around Saltstraumen offers an abundance of animal and sea life. There are several ways of experiencing Saltstraumen either from land, from the bridge Saltstraumbrua or the most intense way from a RIB-boat on the water. Like all tidal currents, Saltstraumen is strongest just after the new and full moon. When visiting Saltstraumen you can refer to a specific current table to find out when the current is at its strongest. The water can move at speeds of up to 20 knots or about 10 meters per second. The maelstrom phenomenon in Saltstraumen is governed by the rise and fall of the currents. Every 6 hours almost 400 million cubic meters of water have to pass through a 3 km long and 150-meter wide strait between Saltenfjord and Skjerstadfjord.
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