Runde

An island of 113 people and something between 500,000 and 700,000 seabirds, most of them packed onto the cliffs. BirdLife International has designated it an Important Bird Area, and the Goksøyr Mires Nature Reserve within the Runde Ramsar Site protects the ground behind. There is a research station, the Runde Environmental Centre, on the island. The seabed has its own history: the Dutch merchantman Akerendam went down on the north side in 1725 with 200 crew and a cargo of gold and silver coin, was salvaged briefly, forgotten, and then rediscovered by sport divers in 1972 over a bottom littered with encrusted coins.