High above the fjord here - about 20 metres up - you'll see a wooden scaffolding with a small hut on top. This is a "laksegilje", a fixed salmon seine. The fishing method may date back to the Stone Age.
The technique is simple but clever: a bag-shaped net hangs in the water below the scaffolding, with a guide net funnelling fish into it. The fisherman sits in the hut watching the water. When salmon swim into the net, he closes the bag using a pulley system. All you need is the scaffolding, the net, and patience.
Salmon fishing in the fjords boomed after 1870 when market prices rose sharply. Just after 1900, fixed seines stood crowded together around the entire Osterøy island and into the straits. It was a busy time with buyers and inspectors. The income was good and the investment low.
The installation at Stamnes has been restored and is part of Straume landscape museum. Nearby is Skipshelleren, a rock shelter where archaeologists found evidence of salmon fishing going back over 6,000 years. The Stone Age people who sheltered there were already catching salmon - probably by angling, since nets developed later around 1500.
Guided tours of the salmon seine and the landscape museum can be arranged. It's a glimpse into a way of life that connected these fjord communities to the sea for millennia.