The entirety of the map, with ports marked.
The map, or playable area in Fishing:Barents Sea is quite large, and based on the actual landscape of Norway. Scattered throughout the sea are ports, fishing spot, and other points of interest.
Ports
Ports provide a place for you to stop for gas, sell fish, hire crew, and purchase upgrades.
Hammerfest
Hammerfest is the main port in the game and also where you first start out. This port offers the same services as all other ports such as refuel, repair, purchase fishing gear and so forth.
However Hammerfest is the only place where you can also upgrade your current boat and purchase new boats (if unlocked).
Facilities available:
- Fish Market
- Crew to Hire
- Bank
- Missions
- Upgrades, Refuel, Repair and Buy Boats
Hammerfest Centrum
Hammerfest Centrum is a smaller port within the same harbor as the main Hammerfest port. This port is located closer to the town itself, and reputation at Hammerfest Centrum is independent from Hammerfest and can be raised by selling fish there instead of the main Hammerfest port.
Facilities available:
- Local Fish Market (sell fish directly to local people at the local fish market between 06:00 and 18:00 for better prices)
- Repair and Refuel
Local Fish Market
Opening hours: 0600 - 1800 every day.
Bonus profit: +20%
Hammerfest Centrum has a special feature called the 'Local Fish Market'. This market is open between 0600 and 1800 each day. By spending at least 8 hours at this market you can get an additional 20% bonus profit when selling your fish. Having to spend 8 hours means means you must arrive before 1000 in the morning otherwise there will not be enough hours left before closing time to get in the full 8 hours required.
If you arrive at the port during the opening hours of the Local Fish Market you will receive a different prompt than the regular pop-up which prompts you to sell your fish when you dock at a port. Instead you will be prompted if you want to sell to the Local Fish Market. If you choose Yes then it brings up the regular pop-up for selling fish where you can adjust how much volume of fish you want to sell.
(If you dock at Hammerfest Centrum and do not get the prompt to sell to the Local Fish Market then check what time it is as the pop-up will not appear if you are docking while the market is closed.)
Important! - If you choose to sell at the Local Fish Market the time will be accelerated / skipped to 1800 hours regardless of how early you arrived. What this means is that even if you arrive at 0700 in the morning and sell to the market the time will be skipped to 1800, even though you might expect that spending 8 hours there when arriving at 0700 would only be 0700 + 8 hours = 1500 hours. This is important to be aware of since skipping the time until 1800 may cause some of your nets or lines to start losing fish.
If you spend less than 8 hours at the Local Fish Market the bonus profit will be less than 20%.
Rypefjord
Rypefjord is a village in Hammerfest Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The village is located just south of the town of Hammerfest on the western side of the large island of Kvaløya.
Facilities available:
- Fish Market
- Missions
- Refuel and Repair
Akkarfjord
Akkarfjord is a small fishing village in northeastern Sørøya in Hammerfest Municipality in Finnmark, Norway. As of 2016, about 70 people live in Akkarfjord and they have a post office, grocery store, school, and kindergarten.
Facilities available:
- Fish Market
- Missions
- Refuel and Repair
Forsøl
Forsøl is a fishing village located on the northeastern coast of the island of Kvaløya, about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) northeast of the town of Hammerfest. Forsøl has the standard services found at most ports in the game with the exception of upgrades for your ship and the purchase of new ships. Fish can be sold here and there are large open waters which, when properly explored, can provide many good spots for fishing cod, pollack, haddock and red fish.
The approach to Forsøl is done by either sailing through the channel to the north (between land and the island Forsølholmen) or through the channel east of Forsøl (south side of Forsølholmen). The approach through the northern channel can be quite narrow, especially with the larger trawlers like Lunar Bow and Hermes, so approaching through the east channel on the south side of Forsølholmen is advised.
Due to the somewhat narrow approaches as well as few houses or lights to guide you in the area the approach to Forsøl can be quite tricky and dangerous to approach during night, fog or weather with poor visibility.
Facilities available:
- Fish Market
- Missions
- Repair and Refuel
Snefjord
Snefjord is a small village in Måsøy Municipality that is reached before coming to Havøysund. Snefjord is now mostly inhabited by pensioners, but previously had a post office, bank, school, and fish farm when it was a ferry connection to Havøysund. Snefjord is otherwise characterized by habitation.
Facilities available:
- Fish Market
- Missions
- Refuel and Repair
Tufjord
Tufjorden is a fjord on the northwest side of Rolfsøya in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark, Norway. It is located on the southern side of the peninsula where the Northern Cape and the Knivskjellodden are located. The fjord has an inlet between Likholmen in the north and Lysøynæring in the south, and extends 12 km southeast to the fishing village of Tufjorden at the end of the fjord.
Facilities available:
- Fish Market
- Missions
- Refuel and repair
Unexplored Areas
When starting out in the game there will be large areas of the map which are hidden under a grey 'fog of war'. This is unexplored areas which can be revealed by sailing your boat into those areas. If you invest in an more expensive radar equipment, the new explored area around the ship is becoming much wider.
One important feature of the unexplored areas is that you can not set waypoints in the grey areas or set waypoints where the line between the waypoints will cross over an unexplored area. In effect this means fast travel is not possible into or through the unexplored areas.
Exploring these areas will also reveal more fishing hotspots where nets and lines can be set to capture fish and will allow you to spread out the fishing to prevent overfishing or emptying out areas closest to the ports.
Open Sea
Located at the far north-west corner of the map you will see a green circle.
Note: The circle may be partially hidden behind the menu where you can select what type of fish to see in hotspots on the map. Minimize this menu to see it better.
Sailing to this location allows the two trawlers in the game, the Lunar Bow and Hermes, to enter the "Open Sea" area where they can do trawling.
Trawling is not possible on the regular map so only way for these two ships to do fishing is to enter this "Open Sea" area.
Other notable areas
Håja
The large island west of Hammerfest is called Håja (Northern Sami: Jievju). When leaving the Hammerfest harbor and turning west you will quickly see the island as it stands out like a small mountain in the water. This can be used as a nice landmark for those who prefer to play in first person view for a more immersive experience.
Several companies and institutions in Hammerfest have been named after Håja, including a kindergarten.
Melkøya
Melkøya (Northern Sami: Muolkkut) is an island directly north-west of Hammerfest. The island is connected to Hammerfest through the Melkøysund Tunnel. The industrial island is the endpoint of the undersea pipeline that transports natural gas from the Snøhvit natural gas fields in the Barents Sea. The gas goes through the 168-kilometre (104 mi) long pipeline to the processing station on Melkøya where it is converted into liquefied natural gas. The plant opened in 2007 and it is operated by the Norwegian oil & gas company Statoil.
The liquefied natural gas is then exported from Melkøya to world markets by a LNG gas carrier or tanker which can sometimes be seen docked at Melkøya in the game.