All six species of whale which occur in the southern hemisphere have been recorded off the Cape

coast, and three of these are regular visitors: the Southern right, the Humpback, and Bryde's whales.
Of these, the biggest and most spectacular is the Southern right whale. These gentle giants (weighing
an average 60 tons), spend six months of the year in the waters of Antarctica, feeding on planktonic
copepods (tiny crustaceans) to build blubber reserves. For the six months spent breeding in the
waters off South Africa's coast, they barely feed, living almost entirely off these accumulated reserves
of fat. 

Southern right whales frequent some of the most beautiful and unspoiled bays in southern Africa,
such as Walker Bay on the "Whale Coast" and Plettenberg Bay along the "Garden Route", where they
can be observed at close quarters, often from the shore. They are easily recognized by their playful
habit of 'breaching', and their characteristic V-shaped blow.

Five species of penguin visit the Cape Peninsula. Of these, only the African Black-Footed Penguin is a
permanent resident, being endemic to South Africa's west coast. They waddle around like gentlemen
in tuxedos on many of Cape Town's favorite beaches (Boulders Beach being perhaps the best place
for close encounters).

Four species of dolphin also play along the shoreline of Southern Africa, and can be observed along
both the east and west coasts. Huge colonies of Cape Fur Seals, some numbering in the tens of
thousands, inhabit the icy Atlantic waters along the Skeleton Coast.
South Africa's east coast is also one of the last remaining breeding grounds for four of the world's
seven species of sea turtles, which come to the beaches of Maputaland every year to lay their eggs.
The largest (and one of the most endangered) species of turtle, the giant Leatherback, is unique in
not having a shell. Instead, this enormous animal (which weighs up to 800 pounds) is covered by a
carapace made up of hundreds of irregular bony plates, covered with a leathery skin. They visit South
Africa's eastern coast to lay eggs between November and March, returning to the same protected
beaches year after year.

Marine Life of Southern Africa

Author: Prof Rudy can der Elst ~ Oceanographic Research Institute, Durban

( Article Type: Overview )
South Africa is endowed with an exceptionally rich marine environment. Besides the huge diversity of
ecosystems, at least 11 130 species of marine animals and numerous species of marine plants and
seaweeds have been identified. These many species represent an enormously valuable resource to
South Africa. Aside from the great industrial value of several species, there are additional less
obvious benefits attributable to many of the other organisms. While traditionally much attention is
devoted to the management of harvesting resources, it is equally important to protect the overall
biodiversity of the South African marine environment. These two activities need not be divergent.
 Biodiversity 
It is known that there are some 2 200 species of fish in our seas, equivalent to about 15% of the total
number of marine fish species worldwide. There are 270 families of fishes represented in South
Africa, equivalent to 83% of all marine fish families known. Strikingly, up to 13% are endemic, ranking
amongst the highest anywhere. There are several families considered to be typically South African.
These are the klipfishes (38 species), the gobies (28 species), the seabreams (25 species), the
catsharks (11 species) and the toadfishes (7 species). Even more impressive are the invertebrates
with an estimated 36% considered endemic. Notable families are the sea cucumbers (122 species),
squids (195 species), jellyfishes (469 species) and pelagic copepods (354 species).
This marine species richness is largely attributable to the diversity of habitat and the fact that South
Africa is located at the confluence of three great oceans: the Indian, Atlantic and Southern Oceans.
However, the distribution of these species is not uniform along the 2881-km coastline, clearly an
implication for their conservation. Accordingly, several attempts have been made to group all these
species into zoo-geographic provinces.
One of these defines three or four regions as follows:
Cool temperate southwest coast: ~ From Luderitz to Cape Point
Warm temperate south coast: ~ From Cape Point to East London
Subtropical east coast (south) ~ From East London to Durban
Subtropical east coast (north) ~ From Durban to Maputo
In a more detailed analysis, the coast was divided into 52 sections of 50 km each. Using distributional
fish records, it was shown that there were huge differences along the coast. Analysis of the data
reveals a progressive increase in diversity from west to east and, significantly, the proportion of
endemic species was highest along the south coast region. Protecting these different species is
clearly a challenge, but the analysis revealed that protecting 25% (650km) of the coastline would
secure the conservation of all inshore fish species. In order to conserve only the 227 species of
coastal endemics, 21% (550km) of coastline required protection.
Conservation status of marine fishes 
The conservation status of marine resources can be determined in different ways, for example:
 Quantitative stock assessment including the regenerative capacity of fish stocks.
 The Red Listing of species according to IUCN categories.
Both methods are of inherent value, the former especially for the benefit of fisheries development
and the latter for protection of biodiversity. Indeed, the two methods are inextricably linked and
should be viewed simultaneously if any real progress towards conservation of marine resources is to
be achieved.
Global status of marine fisheries 
Each year the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN (FAO) collects the catch and effort
statistics from fishing nations around the world. For statistical purposes, these data are allocated to
16 oceanic regions, before being processed on an individual species and family basis. The results of
this process are summarised into a global assessment of the status of marine (and freshwater) fishes.
Obviously, only the exploited species are given consideration. However, as fishing represents one of
the main pressures on the survival of fish species, this represents an important indicator of species
conservation status.
The first global assessment was made in 1971 and since then there have been regular updates.
Several general conclusions can be drawn from these results.
 Despite substantial increases in effort and technology, the historic annual growth in total
catch has ceased and the world’s harvest of marine fish has reached a plateau.
 Considering individual species-area complexes, 200 of the world’s top fish species have been
classified into one of four categories: undeveloped, developing, mature and senescent stocks. These
results show that more than 35% of these top species are in serious decline with a further 25%
having reached maximum exploitation levels. In other words, 60% of the world’s top marine fish
species are at – or even beyond – their levels of maximum sustainable yield and hence their
regenerative capacity.
 Considering the above information on a regional basis, 9 out of the 16 regions are overfished.
South Africa falls in two of the regions, one of which (the SE Atlantic) is considered overfished, while
the other (SW Indian Ocean) is still indicating an annual growth in landings.
 One of the more significant deductions from the global fishery analysis is the progressive
change in species composition of landings. In the 1950s, the bulk of the global catch was made up of
some 50 species of fish. This progressively changed with more species being added as historically
important species became depleted – referred to as serial overfishing. At present, more than 600
species constitute the world’s catch – and so the number of potential new species will eventually run
out and only depleted species will remain.
 The level of wasted by-catch in the world’s fisheries is quite staggering. A total of 27 million
tons of marine life is dumped each year, equivalent to almost a third of all fish harvested.
South African fish and fisheries 
The big industrial marine fisheries of South Africa have endured large-scale fluctuations over the
years. Much of this is attributable to environmental variability and interactions between species.
However, in the 1960s and 1970s, the landings of several species were allowed to escalate beyond
levels of sustainability, posing a threat to the biodiversity of the region. Fortunately, this situation has
since stabilised, largely due to improved assessment and management strategies implemented by
Marine and Coastal Management (MCM). This is especially true for the pelagic and demersal
fisheries, but less so for some inshore resources such as abalone. Indeed, several serious issues
remain, despite growth in landings. Serial over-fishing is not only a global issue and South African
fisheries have also shown a progressive increase in the number of species harvested over the
years. In 1964 only 17 species of marine fish were reported in national landings. Today at least 51
species are involved, with additions such as swordfish, orangeroughy and toothfish. The concern over
by-catch is also a local problem. For every ton of prawns caught on the Tugela Banks, up to four tons
of fish are dumped, including endemic and rare species.
The situation is even less optimistic with demersal linefish species. Comprised predominantly of
endemic species of the seabream family (Sparidae), these fishes have been severely depleted. Most
famous amongst these are the seventyfour, red steenbras, red stumpnose and similar species.
Following concerted efforts by South African linefish researchers, the various species were assessed
and allocated to different levels of conservation status. This was a quantitative assessment based on
the species’ regenerative capacity termed the ‘spawner biomass per recruit’ (SB/R). Based on
extensive data from many species and studies, it was deduced that if SB/R fell below 25% of virgin
stock levels, its regenerative capacity would be severely damaged. The only conclusion that can be
drawn is that demersal, and especially endemic, linefish species are seriously depleted, many to
levels below regenerative capacity. It can be argued that these depletions, some of more than 90%,
ranks amongst the most serious impacts on biodiversity and species richness in the region.
While human pressures through fishing have impacted severely on many species, the decline in the
quality and extent of suitable habitat also plays a part. Degraded estuaries and increased silt loads all
contribute to increasing pressure on some fish species.
South Africa red data of fishes 
The original approach to redlisting involved the allocation of species to four categories: threatened,
endangered, vulnerable and rare. This was later expanded to include data deficient and recovered
species. While the system proved useful for the protection of terrestrial plants and animals, it was
rather simplistic and quite inadequate for marine organisms, especially fishes. In fact, only 4.2% of
the global redlisted species are marine species. This shortcoming was realised by WWF and IUCN,
who arranged a joint expert workshop in 1996 in London to identify specific shortcomings in
redlisting criteria for marine fishes and thence to develop guidelines for improving the classification.
The first attempt at classification of fishes in red data categories was done by Skelton in 1977, when
he recorded 28 species of fishes, four (14%) of them marine linked. A decade later, Skelton listed 50
species, 14 (27%) of them marine related – all estuarine. Now, 14 years later, IUCN and the
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has released a new South African red data list for
marine animals as part of a CITES species management plan. This time the list has 53 marine fish
species, a 13-fold increase since 1997, and with 33 species exclusively marine. How does this list
compare to international trends? Data are available for the global listing of marine fishes as well as
for Australia. This comparison in numbers listed is reflected in the table on the previous page. The
table of Red Data Categories indicates that southern Africa and Australia have reasonably similar
levels of redlisting, while the proportion allocated to ‘data deficient’ in Australia is much higher than
that in southern Africa. In contrast, South Africa has listed a greater proportion in the critical and low
risk categories.
Regional challenges 
South Africa cannot protect its marine resources in isolation. Many of our species are shared with
other nations and many others migrate across national boundaries. This calls for concerted regional
collaboration in resource management and conservation. Approximately 30% of the world’s
population live in countries surrounding the Indian Ocean, but this ocean generates only 5% of the
global fish catch. It is estimated that there are more than half a million people in this region who are
engaged in a daily routine of harvesting marine resources. These range from subsistence harvesting
along intertidal shorelines to small scale fishing ventures at the individual or community level,
ranging to the nation’s territorial limits. However, the capacity to manage these resources, as well as
the data required to monitor stocks is often inadequate. For this reason a number of regional
research and management programmes have been introduced. South Africa actively participates in
several of these.

Conclusion 
There is no doubt that the challenges facing marine conservation in the southern African region are
enormous. Added to this has been a steady decline in scientific expertise, as many scientists have
been lured overseas. But this also provides new opportunities that need to be grasped and
developed. Notwithstanding several serious conservation problems, South Africa has an excellent
marine conservation record. Technical knowledge remains good, but this must also be matched with
political will to implement conservation strategies based on good science

Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, but
larger than the Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean). The Kiel Canal (Germany),
Oresund (Denmark-Sweden), Bosporus (Turkey), Strait of Gibraltar (Morocco-Spain), and the Saint
Lawrence Seaway (Canada-US) are important strategic access waterways.

Location : Body of water between Africa, Europe, the Southern Ocean, and the Western Hemisphere.

Geographic coordinates : 0 00 N, 25 00 W.

Area Total : 76.762 million sq km. This includesBaltic Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Davis Strait,
Denmark Strait, part of the Drake Passage, Gulf of Mexico, Labrador Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North
Sea, Norwegian Sea, almost all of the Scotia Sea, and other tributary water bodies.

Area - comparative : Slightly less than 6.5 times the size of the US.

Coastline : 111,866 km.

Climate : Tropical cyclones (hurricanes) develop off the coast of Africa near Cape Verde and move
westward into the Caribbean Sea; hurricanes can occur from May to December, but are most
frequent from August to November.

Terrain : Surface usually covered with sea ice in Labrador Sea, Denmark Strait, and coastal portions of
the Baltic Sea from October to June; clockwise warm-water gyre (broad, circular system of currents)
in the northern Atlantic, counterclockwise warm-water gyre in the southern Atlantic; the ocean floor
is dominated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rugged north-south centerline for the entire Atlantic basin.

Elevation extremes :

 Lowest point : Milwaukee Deep in the Puerto Rico Trench -8,605 m.

 Highest point : sea level 0 m.

Natural Resources : Oil and gas fields, Sea Fish, marine mammals (seals and whales), sand and gravel
aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, precious stones.

Natural Hazards : Icebergs common in Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, and the northwestern Atlantic
Ocean from February to August and have been spotted as far south as Bermuda and
the Madeira Islands; ships subject to superstructure icing in extreme northern Atlantic from October
to May; persistent fog can be a maritime hazard from May to September; hurricanes (May to
December).

Environment - Current issues : Endangered marine species include the manatee, seals, Sea Lions,
turtles, and whales; drift net fishing is hastening the decline of fish stocks and contributing to
international disputes; municipal sludge pollution off eastern US, southern Brazil, and eastern
Argentina; oil pollution in Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and
North Sea; industrial waste and municipal sewage pollution in Baltic Sea, North Sea, and
Mediterranean Sea.

Major chokepoints include the Dardanelles, Strait of Gibraltar, access to the Panama and Suez
Canals; strategic straits include the Strait of Dover, Straits of Florida, Mona Passage, The Sound
(Oresund), and Windward Passage; the Equator divides the Atlantic Ocean into the North Atlantic
Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean.
Ports and harbors : Alexandria (Egypt), Algiers (Algeria), Antwerp (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain),
Buenos Aires (Argentina), Casablanca (Morocco), Colon (Panama), Copenhagen (Denmark), Dakar
(Senegal), Gdansk (Poland), Hamburg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Las Palmas (Canary Islands,
Spain), Le Havre (France), Lisbon (Portugal), London (UK), Marseille (France), Montevideo (Uruguay),
Montreal (Canada), Naples (Italy), New Orleans (US), New York (US), Oran (Algeria), Oslo (Norway),
Peiraiefs or Piraeus (Greece), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Saint Petersburg
(Russia), Stockholm (Sweden).

Economy - overview : The Atlantic Ocean provides some of the world's most heavily trafficked sea
routes, between and within the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Other economic activity includes
the exploitation of natural resources, e.g., fishing, the dredging of aragonite sands (The Bahamas),
and production of crude oil andnatural gas (Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Sea).

Ports and harbors : McMurdo, Palmer, and offshore anchorages in Antarctica.

Few ports or harbors exist on the southern side of the Southern Ocean; ice conditions limit use of
most of them to short periods in midsummer; even then some cannot be entered without icebreaker
escort; most antarctic ports are operated by government research stations and, except in an
emergency, are not open to commercial or private vessels; vessels in any port south of 60 degrees
south are subject to inspection by Antarctic Treaty observers (see Article 7).

Transportation - note : Kiel Canal and Saint Lawrence Seaway are two important waterways;
significant domestic commercial and recreational use of Intracoastal Waterway on central and south
Atlantic seaboard and Gulf of Mexico coast of US.

Disputes - International : Some maritime disputes (see littoral states).

The warmth of the Indian Ocean keeps phytoplankton production low, except along the northern
fringe and in a few scattered spots elsewhere; life in the ocean is thus limited. Fishing is confined to
subsistence levels, because its fish are of great and growing importance to the bordering countries
for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, South Korea,
and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and tuna.

Endangered marine species include the dugong, seals, turtles, and whales.

Oil and ship pollution threatens the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea.