Sandwich Harbour ( pt, Porto d'Ilhéu), also known as Sandwich Bay, Sandvishawe, Sandvisbaai and Sandfisch Bai is an area on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast of

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

that includes a bay in the north and a

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

at the southern end. The name could be after an English

whaling ship A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Jap ...

, the Sandwich, which worked during the 1780s, or may be a corruption of the German word "sandfische", a species of shark found in the area. Formerly the bay was a moderately-sized commercial port based around

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

and small-scale fishing, but it is now best known for its birdlife in the lagoon to the south of the bay.

Geography

Located about 80 km south of

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The c ...

, the area is within the

Erongo Erongo is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. The capital is Swakopmund. It is named after Mount Erongo, a well-known landmark in Namibia and in this area. Erongo contains the municipalities of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Henties Bay and Omaruru, as w ...

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

. The bay opens to the north and is about 4.2 km long and 4 km wide. There is a shallow lagoon lying south of the bay, separated from it by an area of beach ridges and swales with saltpans. The lagoon is 3.7 km in length and 1 km wide and is limited by sandy desert on its eastern side.

GoogleEarth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

Former visitors to the area assumed that the water in the lagoon was fresh, but a recent survey found out that the lagoon is filled with poor quality

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...

that seeps under the dunes and allows the growth of large reed beds at the water's edge. Remains of the guanu factory

History

The area was surveyed in the 1880s by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

but it was considered very inferior to Walvis Bay and no development took place. Occasional sealing vessels used the bay as an anchorage, instead of Walvis Bay, and there were some temporary settlements used by seasonal fishermen catching snoek (''

Thyrsites atun ''Thyrsites atun'' ( Euphrasén, 1791), the snoek, is a long, thin species of snake mackerel found in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere, and a popular food fish in South Africa, particularly along the west and southwest coast. This fish can ...

''). In the 1930s an ambitious project was started to build a

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

island in the lagoon using sand pumps imported from the Netherlands. Unfortunately

jackal Jackals are medium-sized canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed ...

s could cross to the island at low tides and chased the birds away. All that remains of the project is the manager's house. Currently the bay and lagoon are within the

Namib-Naukluft National Park The Namib-Naukluft Park is a national park in western Namibia, situated between the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the edge of the Great Escarpment. It encompasses part of the Namib Desert (considered the world's oldest desert), the Naukluft mo ...

. The fauna was surveyed by the

South African Museum The Iziko South African Museum is a South African national museum located in Cape Town. The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present site in the Company's Garden since 1897. The museum houses important A ...

and the

National Museum of Namibia The National Museum of Namibia is a historical and zoological museum in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Location and description The National Museum is accommodated at three different places in central Windhoek. The ''Owela Display Centre'' (a ...

. It was found that the fauna was totally marine.Namib-Naukluft Park
/ref>

References

External links

*
First confirmed record of ''Lithognathus lithognathus'' sympatric with ''L. aureti''
Lagoons of Africa Bays of Namibia Bodies of water of Namibia Ramsar sites in Namibia Namib-Naukluft National Park {{Namibia-geo-stub

Geography

History

See also

References

External links