Gansbaai, Western Cape
Encyclopedia
Gansbaai is a fishing
village and popular tourist
destination in the Overberg District Municipality
, Western Cape
, South Africa
. It is known for its dense population of Great White Shark
s and as a whale-watching location.
The main tourist attraction in Gansbaai since approximately 1995 has been cage diving with Great White sharks. It is said that after Kruger National Park
, the Great White sharks attract some of the highest number of tourist to South Africa for any singular activity.
man was still the dominant species of genus Homo
in Europe, a group of modern people (Homo sapiens sapiens
) had already made Klipgat Cave their home. Remains have been excavated showing modern man living here more than 70,000 years ago. Klipgat Cave is located in the Walker Bay
Nature Reserve, next to De Kelders, the residential shore area of Gansbaai. As one of only three places in South Africa where such old remains have been excavated, Klipgat Cave is one of the most important historical sites in the Western Cape. The reserve and the cave are open to the public.
The earliest evidence of the presence of sheep-herding Khoi
people (after the hunter-gatherer-"San", the original indigenous population of the Western Cape) in the Western Cape has been found in Klipgat Cave as well. Until the arrival of the first white settlers at the end of the 18th century, the Khoi people thrived in this region. An expedition sent by Jan van Riebeeck
to the area, described meeting people of the so-called Chainouqua-tribe near Baardskeerdersbos, a rural hamlet, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Gansbaai. The river flowing through the Baardskeerdersbos Valley is still called "Boesmansrivier" (Afrikaans for Bushman's river). "Bushman
" is a name commonly used the for San-people, but will in this case have reflected Khoi-people.
It was people of Khoi-descent that erected the first permanent settlement in the Gansbaai vicinity. In 1811 fishing-cottages were built at Stanfords Bay in De Kelders.
The first white settlers in the area were "trekboer
e" (nomadic farmers). They copied the Khoi herding techniques of using a grazing area until it was exhausted, then moving on to greener pastures. The area was big and fertile enough for such purposes. On many of the large farms around Gansbaai, the old and original homesteads and mudstone-houses tell of the days that the white farmers settled down.
The troopship HMS Birkenhead
was wrecked off Danger Point in 1852. A barely visible rock 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Danger Point (now aptly called "Birkenhead Rock") was fatal for the troopship carrying young Welsh and Scottish soldiers and their officers and family on their way to Eastern Cape to fight
the Xhosa. The Birkenhead became famous because it was the first shipwreck where the "women and children first" protocol was applied. All women and children were saved; most of the men perished. Most of the horses swam ashore and were the ancestors of a feral herd that roamed the plains east of Gansbaai until late in the 20th century.
More than 140 ships have been wrecked and thousands of lives lost between Danger Point and Cape Infanta, to the east of Gansbaai. In 1895, the Danger Point Lighthouse was built, providing more security for the ships in these dangerous waters.
Gansbaai was founded in 1881 after 18-year-old fisherman
Johannes Cornelis Wessels walked there across the dune
s from Stanford
and discovered excellent fishing in the area. He settled there, and soon after other families followed suit. Up until the late 20th century, however, it was little more than a primitive fishing village due to its isolation and lack of communication with the outside world.
Gansbaai's economy
received an economic boost in 1939 when a small factory
was built to process sharks' livers
for Vitamin A
and lubricant
, which was in great demand during World War II
. After the war, however, demand fell and the few short years of prosperity were over.
It wasn't until local school principal Johannes Barnard persuaded village fishermen to set up the first Fishery Cooperative in South Africa that the economy began to recover. Barnard helped the fishermen obtain capital from the Fisheries Development Corporation, deepen the harbour and establish a modern fish meal
factory. The town became a municipality
in 1963.
Today, Gansbaai's economy still revolves around its fishing industry, but an increasingly large part of it now comes from tourism. It is considered the Great White Shark
capital of the world, drawing National Geographic Society
film crews and researchers from around the globe to study the wildlife. It has also become a popular whale-watching spot for the Southern Right Whale
.
The Southern Right Whale can be seen in large numbers, especially from the rocky shores of De Kelders on Walker Bay. This is also the site of an old whaling station. The lookout platform and the steps leading to it are still standing. Today whales are protected in South Afric and the descendants of the whalers are now the skippers on the boats that take tourists out for boat-based whale watching.
The hinterland is known for its vast mountainous landscapes covered with unspoilt vegetation of the Cape Floral Kingdom
('fynbos
'). Despite being the smallest of the world's six floral kingdoms, the Cape Floral Kingdom, with 9000 species, is the richest.
Dyer Island is the largest of a group of islands about 5 miles (8 km) offshore from Gansbaai and less than that from Danger Point peninsula. It is named after Samson Dyer
, an emigrant from the USA to the Cape Colony
in 1806, who lived on the island collecting guano
, which he sold to mainlanders as fertilizer
. The island is home to thousands of African Penguin
s.
Geyser Rock is a smaller island nearby, and is home to around 60,000 Cape Fur Seal
s.
The shallow channel
between the two islands is popularly known as "Shark Alley".
Dyer Island is a nature reserve and cannot be accessed by the general public, but boat tours leave from Kleinbaai on Danger Point peninsula to watch whales, stop at a shark-diving-boat, to cross Shark-Alley and to go around Dyer Island.
, which falls within the Overberg District Municipality
. The Overstrand council governs the southwestern coast of the Overberg
, from Pringle Bay
to Pearly Beach
; its headquarters are in Hermanus
but there is an office in Gansbaai.
, the population of Gansbaai (including the adjacent township
of Masakhane) was recorded as 6,969 people, living in an area of 12.2 square kilometres (4.7 sq mi), giving the town a population density of 572.9 PD/sqkm. 35% of the inhabitants described themselves as "Coloured
", 33% as "Black African
", and 32% as "White". 65% spoke Afrikaans as their first language
, 30% spoke Xhosa
, 3% spoke English
, and 2% spoke some other language.
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
village and popular tourist
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
destination in the Overberg District Municipality
Overberg District Municipality
The Overberg District Municipality is a district municipality located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its municipality code is DC3.- Adjacent municipalities :*Cape Winelands District Municipality *Eden District Municipality...
, Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. It is known for its dense population of Great White Shark
Great white shark
The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...
s and as a whale-watching location.
The main tourist attraction in Gansbaai since approximately 1995 has been cage diving with Great White sharks. It is said that after Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers and extends from north to south and from east to west.To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is...
, the Great White sharks attract some of the highest number of tourist to South Africa for any singular activity.
History
Gansbaai at De Kelders has one of the oldest associations with man in the world. At the time when NeanderthalNeanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
man was still the dominant species of genus Homo
Homo
Homo may refer to:*the Greek prefix ὅμο-, meaning "the same"*the Latin for man, human being*Homo, the taxonomical genus including modern humans...
in Europe, a group of modern people (Homo sapiens sapiens
Anatomically modern humans
The term anatomically modern humans in paleoanthropology refers to early individuals of Homo sapiens with an appearance consistent with the range of phenotypes in modern humans....
) had already made Klipgat Cave their home. Remains have been excavated showing modern man living here more than 70,000 years ago. Klipgat Cave is located in the Walker Bay
Walker Bay
Walker Bay is a large bay located in the south-western Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the next major bay between False Bay near Cape Town and Cape Agulhas to the south-east. The bay is famous for having some of the best land based whale-watching in the world, which a town on its...
Nature Reserve, next to De Kelders, the residential shore area of Gansbaai. As one of only three places in South Africa where such old remains have been excavated, Klipgat Cave is one of the most important historical sites in the Western Cape. The reserve and the cave are open to the public.
The earliest evidence of the presence of sheep-herding Khoi
Khoikhoi
The Khoikhoi or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen . They had lived in southern Africa since the 5th century AD...
people (after the hunter-gatherer-"San", the original indigenous population of the Western Cape) in the Western Cape has been found in Klipgat Cave as well. Until the arrival of the first white settlers at the end of the 18th century, the Khoi people thrived in this region. An expedition sent by Jan van Riebeeck
Jan van Riebeeck
Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck was a Dutch colonial administrator and founder of Cape Town.-Biography:...
to the area, described meeting people of the so-called Chainouqua-tribe near Baardskeerdersbos, a rural hamlet, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Gansbaai. The river flowing through the Baardskeerdersbos Valley is still called "Boesmansrivier" (Afrikaans for Bushman's river). "Bushman
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
" is a name commonly used the for San-people, but will in this case have reflected Khoi-people.
It was people of Khoi-descent that erected the first permanent settlement in the Gansbaai vicinity. In 1811 fishing-cottages were built at Stanfords Bay in De Kelders.
The first white settlers in the area were "trekboer
Trekboer
The Trekboers were nomadic pastoralists descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch colonists, French Huguenots and German Protestants. The Trekboere began migrating from the areas surrounding what is now Cape Town during the 17th century throughout the 18th century.-Origins:The Trekboere were...
e" (nomadic farmers). They copied the Khoi herding techniques of using a grazing area until it was exhausted, then moving on to greener pastures. The area was big and fertile enough for such purposes. On many of the large farms around Gansbaai, the old and original homesteads and mudstone-houses tell of the days that the white farmers settled down.
HMS Birkenhead (1845)
HMS Birkenhead, also referred to as HM Troopship Birkenhead or steam frigate Birkenhead, was one of the first iron-hulled ships built for the Royal Navy...
was wrecked off Danger Point in 1852. A barely visible rock 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Danger Point (now aptly called "Birkenhead Rock") was fatal for the troopship carrying young Welsh and Scottish soldiers and their officers and family on their way to Eastern Cape to fight
Xhosa wars
The Xhosa Wars, also known as the Cape Frontier Wars, were a series of nine wars between the Xhosa people and European settlers, from 1779 to 1879 in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa....
the Xhosa. The Birkenhead became famous because it was the first shipwreck where the "women and children first" protocol was applied. All women and children were saved; most of the men perished. Most of the horses swam ashore and were the ancestors of a feral herd that roamed the plains east of Gansbaai until late in the 20th century.
More than 140 ships have been wrecked and thousands of lives lost between Danger Point and Cape Infanta, to the east of Gansbaai. In 1895, the Danger Point Lighthouse was built, providing more security for the ships in these dangerous waters.
Gansbaai was founded in 1881 after 18-year-old fisherman
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
Johannes Cornelis Wessels walked there across the dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
s from Stanford
Stanford, Western Cape
Stanford, Western Cape is a settlement in Overberg District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa....
and discovered excellent fishing in the area. He settled there, and soon after other families followed suit. Up until the late 20th century, however, it was little more than a primitive fishing village due to its isolation and lack of communication with the outside world.
Gansbaai's economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
received an economic boost in 1939 when a small factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
was built to process sharks' livers
Shark liver oil
Shark liver oil is obtained from sharks that are caught for food purposes and are living in cold, deep oceans. The liver oil from sharks has been used by fishermen for centuries as a folk remedy for general health...
for Vitamin A
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is a vitamin that is needed by the retina of the eye in the form of a specific metabolite, the light-absorbing molecule retinal, that is necessary for both low-light and color vision...
and lubricant
Lubricant
A lubricant is a substance introduced to reduce friction between moving surfaces. It may also have the function of transporting foreign particles and of distributing heat...
, which was in great demand during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After the war, however, demand fell and the few short years of prosperity were over.
It wasn't until local school principal Johannes Barnard persuaded village fishermen to set up the first Fishery Cooperative in South Africa that the economy began to recover. Barnard helped the fishermen obtain capital from the Fisheries Development Corporation, deepen the harbour and establish a modern fish meal
Fish meal
Fish meal, or fishmeal, is a commercial product made from both whole fish and the bones and offal from processed fish. It is a brown powder or cake obtained by rendering pressing the cooked whole fish or fish trimmings to remove most of the fish oil and water, and then ground...
factory. The town became a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in 1963.
Today, Gansbaai's economy still revolves around its fishing industry, but an increasingly large part of it now comes from tourism. It is considered the Great White Shark
Great white shark
The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...
capital of the world, drawing National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
film crews and researchers from around the globe to study the wildlife. It has also become a popular whale-watching spot for the Southern Right Whale
Right whale
Right whales are three species of large baleen whales consisting of two genera in the family Balaenidae of order Cetacea. Their bodies are very dark gray or black and rotund....
.
The Southern Right Whale can be seen in large numbers, especially from the rocky shores of De Kelders on Walker Bay. This is also the site of an old whaling station. The lookout platform and the steps leading to it are still standing. Today whales are protected in South Afric and the descendants of the whalers are now the skippers on the boats that take tourists out for boat-based whale watching.
The hinterland is known for its vast mountainous landscapes covered with unspoilt vegetation of the Cape Floral Kingdom
Cape floristic region
The Cape Floristic Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province.The Cape Floristic Region, the smallest of the six recognised...
('fynbos
Fynbos
Fynbos is the natural shrubland or heathland vegetation occurring in a small belt of the Western Cape of South Africa, mainly in winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate...
'). Despite being the smallest of the world's six floral kingdoms, the Cape Floral Kingdom, with 9000 species, is the richest.
Dyer Island, Geyser Rock and Shark Alley
The original name of Dyer Island was Ilha da Fera (Island of wild creatures), so named by Portuguese seafarers in the 15th century.Dyer Island is the largest of a group of islands about 5 miles (8 km) offshore from Gansbaai and less than that from Danger Point peninsula. It is named after Samson Dyer
Samson Dyer
Samson Gabriel Dyer aka Sampson Dyers was an African-American noted for his association with Dyer Island off the Cape Agulhas coast of South Africa....
, an emigrant from the USA to the Cape Colony
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
in 1806, who lived on the island collecting guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
, which he sold to mainlanders as fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
. The island is home to thousands of African Penguin
African Penguin
The African Penguin , also known as the Black-footed Penguin is a species of penguin, confined to southern African waters. It is known as Brilpikkewyn in Afrikaans, Inguza or Unombombiya in Xhosa, Manchot Du Cap in French and Pingüino Del Cabo in Spanish...
s.
Geyser Rock is a smaller island nearby, and is home to around 60,000 Cape Fur Seal
Cape Fur Seal
The brown fur seal , also known as the Cape fur seal, South African fur seal and the Australian fur seal is a species of fur seal.-Description:...
s.
The shallow channel
Channel (geography)
In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or human-made deeper course through a reef, sand bar, bay, or any shallow body of water...
between the two islands is popularly known as "Shark Alley".
Dyer Island is a nature reserve and cannot be accessed by the general public, but boat tours leave from Kleinbaai on Danger Point peninsula to watch whales, stop at a shark-diving-boat, to cross Shark-Alley and to go around Dyer Island.
Government
Gansbaai is located in the Overstrand Local MunicipalityOverstrand Local Municipality
Overstrand Municipality is a local municipality located within the Overberg District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2007, it had a population of 74,547.-Government:...
, which falls within the Overberg District Municipality
Overberg District Municipality
The Overberg District Municipality is a district municipality located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its municipality code is DC3.- Adjacent municipalities :*Cape Winelands District Municipality *Eden District Municipality...
. The Overstrand council governs the southwestern coast of the Overberg
Overberg
Overberg is a district in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the east...
, from Pringle Bay
Pringle Bay
Pringle Bay is a small coastal town of ca. 1600 inhabitants in the Overberg region of the Western Cape, in South Africa. It is situated at the foot of Hangklip, on the opposite side of False Bay from Cape Point. The town and surrounds are part of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO Heritage...
to Pearly Beach
Pearly Beach
Pearly Beach is a village in Overberg District Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.-Geography:Not far from Pearly Beach is Dyers Island, a breeding colony for jackass penguins. Not far from Dyers Island is Geyser Island, a breeding ground for seals...
; its headquarters are in Hermanus
Hermanus
Hermanus is a town with 49,000 inhabitants on the southern coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is famous as a place from which to watch Southern Right whales, during the southern winter and spring and is a popular retirement town...
but there is an office in Gansbaai.
Demographics
In the 2001 censusSouth African National Census of 2001
The South African National Census of 2001 is the most recent national census of South Africa.The census was undertaken by Statistics South Africa and undertook to enumerate every person present in South Africa on the census night, 9–10 October 2001. The enumeration primarily took place from 10 to...
, the population of Gansbaai (including the adjacent township
Township (South Africa)
In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...
of Masakhane) was recorded as 6,969 people, living in an area of 12.2 square kilometres (4.7 sq mi), giving the town a population density of 572.9 PD/sqkm. 35% of the inhabitants described themselves as "Coloured
Coloured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
", 33% as "Black African
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
", and 32% as "White". 65% spoke Afrikaans as their first language
First language
A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity...
, 30% spoke Xhosa
Xhosa language
Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...
, 3% spoke English
South African English
The term South African English is applied to the first-language dialects of English spoken by South Africans, with the L1 English variety spoken by Zimbabweans, Zambians and Namibians, being recognised as offshoots.There is some social and regional variation within South African English...
, and 2% spoke some other language.