The history of Koster

The oldest bedrock was formed 1.8 billion years ago.

After the ice age the Koster islands lay under water, and 2000 years later the water level was 10 meters higher than it is today.

According to legend, the Koster islands were settled in the 1300s by people fleeing the black death. In the 1600s there were 6 farms on the islands which at that time belonged to Oslo, the islands became Swedish in 1658, through the peace of Roskilde. By 1754 North and South Koster had together 54 inhabitants not including servants and maids who worked on the islands. By the beginning of the 1900s the number of inhabitants had grown to around 500 and at most 700 people lived on the islands.

Fishing has always been a part of life on the Koster islands and an important source of income. The residents of the island group learned early to take advantage of the bounty of the sea. In the 1600s and 1700s lobster and oysters were fished and bought by European traders. Also, at that time large quantities of herring appeared off the west coast which led to an increase of residents on the islands.

In the 1800s fishing was done from simple boats and tools such as a trawl net, a relatively small net laid out in a semicircle and then pulled in from land.

In the 1900s they began using motorboats and purse nets, which led to more effective fishing. It was small-scale mixed fishery that varied according to season. In winter white fish dominated (turbot, haddock, flatfish and whiting). In the spring and summer they fished mackerel and eel. In the autumn they caught lobster.

The herring had disappeared by 1906 and was then replaced by whaling, which was banned in 1929. Shrimp fishing began as early as 1902, but became the main catch when whaling was banned. In the 1930s there were 30 shrimp boats on the Koster islands. Agriculture also had its heyday in the 1930s with 130 cows and 30 horses on South Koster.