Nowhere else in the world do people appear to have caught eagles with their bare hands as a sustained practice. On Værøy, hunters would find a shallow cave or dig a stone pit in a position overlooking open ground, bait it with a carcass — a dead sheep was common — and lie hidden inside waiting. When a white-tailed eagle landed to feed, the hunter would reach out and seize it by the legs. The birds were killed for their feathers, which had commercial value, and for bounties paid by authorities who considered them a threat to livestock and young lambs. The practice continued into the twentieth century.
Several of the hunting sites survive near Sørland and can be visited. The exact locations are best confirmed locally — islanders can point you in the right direction, and some guided walks include them. The caves and pits themselves are modest in scale; what's striking is imagining the patience the practice required, and the matter-of-fact courage of grabbing a bird with a two-meter wingspan that had no intention of going quietly.
The white-tailed eagle, once rare across much of Norway due to hunting and persecution, has recovered significantly since receiving full legal protection in 1968. You're likely to see them over Værøy today — large, broad-winged silhouettes soaring above the ridge or quartering the coastline. The same bird that hunters once risked their arms to catch is now one of the island's incidental attractions.