African Reservations

The river has through the centuries been known as an estuary fisherman’s paradise, and the bay, home at times to huge concentrations of sardines and anchovies, a prolific source of line fish, hake and east coast sole. Eventually it was recognized by the scientists as not only a nursery area for the whales, but also, at the other end of the scale, the East coast sole population. The result was that it was closed to commercial bottom trawlers working out of Hermanus, Gansbaai and Mosselbay, on the rich east coast trawl grounds.

Furthermore a 50km stretch of coastline, off the De Hoop Infanta peninsula, is a fully closed Marine Reserve where not even recreational fishing may take place. The coastline and the adjacent dunes and hills are home to the largest known collection of dune and Protea vegetation on this planet, known colloquially as the “Cape Fynbos”.