See Svolvær Fish Racks (Hjell), Svolvær, Norway

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A drying rack or Fish rack is a framework, usually of wood for outdoor drying fish . The drying rack (Norwegian word is Hjell) was an essential aid for dried fish production in large quantities, and is probably used in Norwegian fisheries districts already in the Middle Ages, when exports of dried fish to European markets got started. Hjell is still used for drying cod and pollock in large quantities. At Ona the Romsdal coast which was the southernmost fishing village, used also these racks to dry small tusk, cod fish heads and backs that were waste from manufacturing bacalao . It was previously only possible to hang up the fish in the winter season, because in the summer the warm weather made worms depraved the meat. The good saithe fishery in the summer was long difficult to exploit to the full, because there were no effective ways to conserve it. This changed however in 1912 when the triangular seihesja was invented by Jens Eriksen from Bø . It made it possible to dry pollock in the summer. The design kept the two halves of dried fish from each other, so that the worms never got good enough growth conditions.

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