Gansbaai, Western Cape
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Gansbaai (Afrikaans: "bay of geese," sometimes referred to as Gans Bay) 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 Sharks and as a good whale-watching location.
History
Gansbaai was founded in 1881 after 18-year-old fisherman Johannes Cornelis Wessels walked there across the dunes from Stanford and discovered how good the fishing was 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 an impoverished fishing village due to its isolation and lack of communication with the outside world.
Gansbaai's economy received a boost in 1939 when a small factory was built to process sharks' livers for Vitamin A and lubricant, which came into high 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 solidify. 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.
Dyer Island, Geyser Rock and Shark Alley
Dyer Island is the largest of a group of islands about five miles offshore of Gansbaai. It is named after Samson Dyer, an emigrant 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 Jackass Penguins.
Geyser Rock is a smaller island nearby, and is home to tens of thousands of Cape Fur Seals.
The shallow channel between the two islands — popularly known as "Shark Alley" — is home to the densest known population of Great White Sharks in the world.
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