Day 6: Marine Protected area at De Hoop Nature Reserve

No wonder a specialist in sea life is very eager and ready to start early, travel 3 hours on mostly gravel roads to reach a special destination of the Marine Protected area at De Hoop. This protected area extends 3 nautical miles (5 km) out to sea and is one of the largest marine protected areas in Africa and provides a sanctuary for a vast and fascinating array of marine life! 

On arriving at De Hoop Nature Reserve - one of the largest natural areas managed by Cape Nature Conservation. (app. 34 000ha in size) - everybody was impressed by the beautiful setting of white dunes against the backdrop of lush fynbos, traditional homesteads and wildlife (especially the interesting Bontebok).

De Hoop Nature Reserve forms part of the world's smallest and most threatened plant kingdom - the Cape Floral Kingdom. Fynbos is the dominant vegetation group and is largely confined to nutrient-poor soils in the winter rainfall areas of the Western Cape. It is adapted to fire and drought and is defined by four growth forms: proteas, ericas, restios and geophytes. De Hoop Nature Reserve is important for the conservation of lowland fynbos as it has the largest conserved area for this rare vegetation type. It is considered as one of the flagship Fynbos Biome reserves. 

De Hoop is a World Heritage Site and a Ramsar Wetland site. De Hoop is famous for its variety of resident and migratory birdlife and more than 260 species have been recorded on the reserve. The De Hoop Vlei attracts large numbers of water birds. The only remaining breeding colony of the rare Cape vulture in the Western Cape occurs at Potberg.

De Hoop Nature Reserve

De Hoop Homestead Historical Monument

Baboons and water birds wading side by side

Bontebokke

Sea view with traditional house

The scientists were more than pleased with the finds of the day and the plant team found species that they have not yet sampled.

Plant team with Millene

The snails at De Hoop were too big to be collected in the little bottles provided for finds and impressed the mollusk team with their size and colour.

Zebra Agate  Snail

Linda Davis of the snail team

The continuous dribble could not deter Herman and his team and they were very happy with their catch of the day and eager to get back to the lab at Klipbokkkop to identify the collected samples.

Dr. Monica Mwale and Murray Duncan

We crossed the Breede River at Malgas with the pontoon and the passengers were impressed by the oldest hand operated ferry in South Africa which is in use for at least a hundred years. For many years the pont was powered singlehandedly by Moxie Dunn. Now three men have to do the work.  

Monica and Murray exited about their find of the day

Malgas Pontoon

Manually operated

Find of the day

The find of the day was the beautiful red-edgedtipped Blennioclinusbrachycephalus. This is a striking clinid with an eye spot that has bright blue semicircular colouring. Other samples were three species of the endemic Caffrogobius, C. caffer, C. nudicepsand C. saldhanha. Overall they collected ten species and were very pleased with their collection.

11 Find of the Day Blennioclinusbrachycephalus