more or less extinct. Overall, Northern Sami is by far the healthiest of the Sami languages today, primarily because it still has a relatively large number of first language speakers and maintains its dominance in core areas in Finnmark. Northern Sami is an official language (in addition to Norwegian) in the municipalities of Gáivuotna (Kåfjord), Kautokeino, Karasjok, Porsanger, Tana and Nesseby. The Finnish spoken in western regions, from Storfjord to Porsanger, is quite distinct, although comprehensible for people from Finland. Further east, around Vadsø and Kirkenes, the spoken Finnish resembles standard Finnish. People of Finnish descent in these eastern areas are also typically more likely to consider themselves as "Finnish Norwegians" rather than Kvens, arguing that the term Kven represents an attempt to cut them off from their Finnish roots. Finnish is official in addition to Sami and Norwegian in Porsanger municipality. Very few first language Finnish speakers remain in Northern Norway, and unlike Northern Sami, the Finnish language lacks a core region where it is still dominant in daily life. Coastal and fjord areas of Northern Norway have much in common with Western Norway, sometimes imagined in cultural terms as a shared "coastal identity". The topography and fjord landscape, the rich fisheries, the culture and even some aspects of the dialects (Vestnorsk) have clear similarities. During the 18th and 19th centuries a Russian-Norwegian pidgin known as Russenorsk developed for the communication of Russian traders and Norwegian fishermen in the Pomor trade. Cuisine Northern Norway is surrounded by some of the richest seas in the world, and seafood is the main source for traditional cuisine. However, agricultural produce has existed for at least 3,000 years in parts of the area (Helgeland, Salten, Lofoten, Harstad-Kvæfjord). In addition to fishing, each family traditionally had a small farm with a few cows (see Pietro Querinis shipwrecked at Røst in 1432), sheep or goats (goats being preferred in many places due to their superior adaptation to the rough and mountainous terrain found in much of Northern Norway) and had small grain fields (mostly barley). After the introduction (and somewhat later acceptance) of potatoes from the Americas, these became a main staple in much of Northern Norway, as well as many other parts of Norway. Agriculture gradually becomes less important as a food source as one moves further north, and in the northern half (north of Balsfjord/Tromsø area) was usually of minor importance and certainly