The municipality of Smøla was established on 1 January 1960 after the merger of the municipalities of Edøy, Brattvær, and Hopen. The initial population of Smøla was 4,046. The boundaries have not changed since that time.
Name
The municipality is named after the main island of Smøla. The name is probably related to the modern Norwegian words smule and smuldre which means "crumble", referring to the thousands of small islands and islets around the main island. Researchers at the Technical University of Berlin have claimed that Smøla is the island which Pytheas called Thule.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted in 1989. The arms show two white seagulls on a red background. This design was chosen to highlight the fact that this is an island community and that is a common type of bird in the area.
Churches
The Church of Norway has three parishes within the municipality of Smøla. It is part of the Ytre Nordmøre prosti in the Diocese of Møre. In 2019, archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research using large-scale high-resolution georadar technology, determined that a 17 meter long Viking ship was buried on the island of Edøya near one of the churches. They estimate its age as over 1,000 years, from the Merovingian or Viking period; the group hopes to conduct additional searches in the area. A similar burial was found previously by the group, in Gjellestad.
The municipality of Smøla is located north of the town of Kristiansund, off the western coast of Norway. The municipality consists of the main island of Smøla and more than 3,000 smaller ones. The main island is very flat, the highest peak reaches above sea level. Almost all of the land area consists of marshes and cliffs; only 5% is cultivated into agricultural land. Other minor islands in the municipality include Edøya, Kuli, and Veiholmen. The municipality is separated from the rest of Norway by the Edøyfjorden to the south. Due to the vast number of small islands surrounding Smøla, there are several lighthouses. The three most notable ones are Haugjegla Lighthouse, Skalmen Lighthouse,, and Tyrhaug Lighthouse. Scientists of the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformationtechnique of the Technical University of Berlin were testing the antique maps of Ptolemy and recognized a pattern of calculation mistakes that occurred when one tried to convert the old coordinates from Ptolemy into modern cartographical maps. The scientists believe that, when one compensates for these mistakes, the mythological location Thule corresponds to the island of Smøla.
The municipal council of Smøla is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:
Mayor
The mayors of Smøla :
2019-present: Svein Roksvåg
2011-2019: Roger Osen
1991-2011: Iver G. Nordseth
1988-1991: Joralf Flataukan
1985-1987: Hans Vallestad
1980-1985: Gudmund Restad
Media
The newspaper Nordvestnytt has been published in Smøla since 1988.
Energy
On 5 September 2002, Statkraft announced the opening of the Smøla Wind Farm, a wind project comprising twenty 2-MW wind turbines by Norway's King Harald V. This corresponds to phase one of the wind project, which when completed will have a total installed capacity of more than. Phase two was opened in September 2005 and included forty-eight 2.3-MW wind turbines. All in all, the wind energy production project consists of 68 windmills, making it among the largest wind projects in Europe. With a total generating capacity of, the Smøla wind farm's 68 turbines account for more than half of the installed wind power capacity in Norway. The total generating capacity is equivalent to 450 GWh of electricity per year, which corresponds to the average annual power consumption of 22,500 Norwegian households.
Attractions
Veiholmen is a large fishing village, north of the main island.
Old Edøy Church, a restored church dating back to about the year 1190.
Deep-sea fishing is a part of the natural environment of Smøla. Smøla provides facilities, guided fishing trips and possibilities for renting fisherman's boats and needed equipment. Participants can expect to catch a large selection of deep sea fish in this area: herring, cod, redfish, perch, monkfish, Atlantic halibut, plaice, carp, char, mackerel, and others.
