The Site is a complex of eight separate areas along the north-western coast of Norway, comprising numerous skerries and islets and a larger island, with shallow marine waters, rocky shores, and some sandy beaches. Its wet meadows, dunes and dune slacks, as well as brackish marshes, are typical of the biogeographic region. The area is one of the county’s most important botanical areas, and more than 270 different plant species have been recorded. The Site is of great importance for staging, moulting and breeding seabirds, and the most common breeding species are the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), the herring gull (Larus argentatus), the common guillemot (Cepphus grylle), the common eider (Somateria mollissima), the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) and the Eurasian oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus). Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) also breed here. The Site is used for recreational activities, fishing and sheep grazing. Traditionally the breeding population of common eiders were exploited for down and egg collection, which boosted their population as they benefited from predator protection and erection of breeding-houses. The abandonment of some of these traditional practices threatens the ecological character of the Site, but there are plans to revive them. Heather and juniper burning as well as grazing are practiced to prevent overgrowing. The Site was extended in 2012.