Title State of the oceans around South Africa: December 2011
Authors

Oceans and Coastal Research
Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE)

Publisher Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (2019)
Contributors

Contact Person: Jimmy Khanyile
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), email: Jkhanyile@environment.gov.za

Abstract Please note: 1. This report has not been peer-reviewed; 2. The conditions of use outlined in the report are superseded by the conditions specified by the License field in this metadata record; 3. The contact information included in the report is superseded by the contact information that can be found in the Responsible Parties field of this metadata record.This series of informal biannual reports was introduced in December 2006 for purposes of establishing general principles (such as annual cycles), long-term trends (which may provide insight into local effects of global warming and climate change), and to provide an overview of recent marine environmental conditions which may be of relevance to the management of South African marine resources. To this end use is made of data from a variety of sources, including web sources, satellite sensors, the South African Weather Service, coastal- and moored instruments and research cruises, and inherent to all of these there is an inevitable lag between the time of data capture and the time when the data first become available for use. Therefore, while it is the aim that the environmental reports should reflect the conditions that prevailed over the months leading up to the reporting date in order to meet the resource management objective, some out-of-date series are incorporated because they provide information on long term trends. Also, in addition to observations directly related to local conditions, time series of the Southern Oscillation Index, the South Atlantic high pressure cell and the St Helena Island Index are also provided because they are known, or at least suspected, of representing global and basin scale processes which affect local conditions.Where-as the bulk of the material presented in these reports is in the form of time series representative of ongoing monitoring, occasional items of non-recurring nature are also included. This report, for instance, contains an analysis of the diurnal nature and periodicity of winds along the South African coast which is unlikely to be updated on a regular basis.
Data
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Temporal extent 01 Jul 2011 – 31 Dec 2011
Geographic extent

North: -23.77
South: -45.95
West: 10.06
East: 44.57

Keywords Cape Point, Chlorophyll, Chlorophyll-a, Ekman upwelling indices, El Niño Southern Oscillation Index, ENSO, HIX, nitrate, phosphate, SAHPC, Sea Surface Temperature, SHBML, silicate, Sodwana Bay, South Africa, South Atlantic high pressure cell, SST, St Helena Island Climate Index, St. Helena Bay, St. Helena Bay Monitoring Line, State of the Marine Environment, State of the Ocean, Tsitsikamma, Wind