There is some settlement on the southeastern side of the fjord: the villages of Li, Vinterstø, and Bu.

[citation needed] The fjord is well known as the location of the World War II-era Altmark incident.

After this incident in the Jøssingfjorden, the term Jøssing came to mean a Norwegian patriot, the opposite of a Quisling (or traitor).

The Norwegian collaborator government tried to neutralize their nickname Quislings by using the Jøssingfjord event to coin a derogatory term Jøssing, referring to "anti-nazis".

This attempt backfired, as it was quickly appropriated as a positive term by the Norwegian populace, and in 1943 the word was banned from official use.