Gamtoos River or Gamptoos River is a river in the

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 1994 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It is formed by the confluence of the

Kouga River The Kouga River originates near Uniondale, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and flows eastward, where it joins the Groot River to form the Gamtoos just past the Kouga Dam. Its main tributary is the Baviaanskloof River, which joins its left bank befo ...

and the

Groot River Groot River or Grootrivier, meaning "large river", may refer to: * Groot River (Eastern Cape), a tributary of the Gamtoos River (South Africa) * Groot River (Southern Cape), a tributary of the Gourits River (South Africa) * Groot River (Western C ...

and is approximately long with a catchment area of .

Course

The Gamtoos river system is formed by the Groot, the Kouga and the

Baviaanskloof Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve is a protected area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Characteristics The Baviaanskloof - (Dutch for "Valley of Baboons") - lies between the Baviaanskloof Range, Baviaanskloof and Kouga Range, Kouga mountain ...

rivers. The latter is a tributary of the Kouga. Although the rainfall in the catchment area is low, it supports a commercial irrigated agriculture in the lower catchment in which

oranges An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae (see list of plants known as orange); it primarily refers to ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related ''Citrus × ...

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

and

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s are grown. There is an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

where the Gamtoos river enters the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

. It is located between

Jeffreys Bay Jeffreys Bay ( af, Jeffreysbaai, nicknamed J-bay) is a town of 27,107 inhabitants as of the 2011 census in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It Is the seat of the Kouga municipality and is famous amongst surfers as a surf capital due ...

and

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

and the Gamtoos River Mouth Nature Reserve is in the area. The towns of

Hankey Hankey is a small town on the confluence of the Klein and Gamtoos rivers in South Africa. It is part of the Kouga Local Municipality of the Sarah Baartman District in the Eastern Cape. History Hankey was established in 1826 and is the ...

, the oldest town situated in the Gamtoos river valley, and

Patensie Patensie is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Patensie lies along the R331 road just south of Noorshoek. The Kouga Dam is located several kilometres to the west. The name is Khoi ...

are situated in the lower catchment. Further inland are the towns of Steytlerville,

Joubertina Joubertina is a small town in the Kou-Kamma Local Municipality, Sarah Baartman District of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Description Town on the Wabooms River in the Langkloof, some 50 km north-west of Assegaaibos, 70 ...

, Uniondale,

Willowmore Willowmore is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The town is situated 140 km north-east of Knysna and 117 km south-west of Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar ...

and

Murraysburg Murraysburg is an Afrikaans speaking town of approximately 5,000 people in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is situated in the far northeast of the municipality, about from the provincial capital Cape Town, and west of Graaff-Reinet. ...

. Tributaries include the

Loerie River The turacos make up the bird family Musophagidae ( "banana-eaters"), which includes plantain-eaters and go-away-birds. In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as loeries. They are semi-zygodactylous: the fourth ( ...

Klein River Klein River is a river in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The river mouth is located at Hermanus. Its tributaries include the Karringmelk River. It falls within the Drainage system G. See also

* List of rivers of South Africa ...

Hol River Hol is a municipality in Viken county, Norway. Administrative history The area of Hol was separated from the municipality Ål in 1877 to become a separate municipality. In 1937 a part of neighboring Uvdal with 220 inhabitants moved to Hol municip ...

, besides the Groot and the Kouga that form the Gamtoos.

History

Saartjie Baartman Sarah Baartman (; 1789– 29 December 1815), also spelt Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje (), or Saartjie, and Bartman, Bartmann, was a Khoikhoi woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under the n ...

- the "Hottentot Venus" - was born around

1789 Events January–March * January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet ''What Is the Third Estate?'' ('), influential on the French Revolution. * January 7 – The 1788-89 United States presidential election a ...

in the vicinity of the Gamtoos river. In 1877 during a severe

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

in the region, the Gamtoos River dried up completely. During the floods of October 1867, according to

John Croumbie Brown John Croumbie Brown (16 May 1808 Haddington, Scotland - 17 September 1895 Haddington) was a prolific author, minister of religion, forestry pioneer in South Africa as well as soil conservationist and hydrologist. He was the grandson of John Bro ...

, the level of water in some parts of the river rose by up to . Two bridges cross the Gamtoos close to its mouth in the Kouga. The original bridge on the

R102 The R.102 (originally referred to as Project H) was a British airship planned in 1930 but never built. The development of R.102 resulted from the Imperial Airship Scheme, when it became apparent that the R100 and R101 airships then being built ...

was opened in 1895 in order to replace the ferry that had been in use up to that time. A modern concrete bridge was built during the construction of the N2 in the early 1970s.

Dams in the basin

Presently this river is part of the Fish to Tsitsikama Water Management Area. *

Kouga Dam The Kouga Dam is an arch dam on the Kouga River about west of Patensie in Kouga Local Municipality, South Africa. It supplies irrigation water to the Kouga and Gamtoos valleys as well as drinking water to the Port Elizabeth metropolitan area v ...

in the Kouga River

Ecology

In 1995 specimens of the

Cape galaxias The Cape galaxias (''Galaxias zebratus'') is a species of freshwater fish of the family (biology), family Galaxiidae. It is a small fish, rarely larger than 6 cm, that inhabits clear streams, rivers and ponds of South Africa. It shares the ...

(''Galaxias zebratus''), a South African fish species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Cape Floristic Region, were found in the

Krom River Krom River or Kromme River ( af, Krommerivier) is a river in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. The river flows into the Indian Ocean through an estuary on the north side of St Francis Bay, west of Port Elizabeth. The Krom river flows in ...

and subsequently they were also found in the Gamtoos River system. Until then it had been thought that its distribution was restricted to the area between the Keurbooms and the Olifants River. Although in South Africa this relatively delicate fish is only classified as

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

, in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

species of the same genus were driven to

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

by competing

salmonid Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...

s and other

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

of fish."Biodiversity, Alien trout, and the So what attitude"
/ref>

References

External links

Birding - Gamtoos River MouthIUCN Red List - Galaxias zebratus
{{Authority control Rivers of the Eastern Cape