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The British built numerous tidal pools around the Cape and Natal south coast - where they liked to holiday. Many were built by municipalities as attractions for holidaymakers, while others were private efforts. The British traveled to places like Hermanus, Sea View, and Margate, where they built hotels, with tidal pools. The Dutch farmers from the interior went to remote locations, in the summer, mainly to fish. Over time some swimming pools will have silted up or simply washed away, but today there are numerous tidal pools along the coast of South Africa, with each region's pools reflecting its dominant cultural heritage.
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Later European colonists used some of the traps as safe swimming areas. They have become amazing recreational facilities for holidaymakers at the beach.Įarlier inhabitants built stone walls on the rocks and used the space to harvest fish trapped by the receding tides. They were the first pools to be constructed before freshwater pools in Southern Africa and were essentially constructed as safe zones due to the alarming number of shark attacks in the 1950s. The South African coastline makes it possible for these pools to be built such that water replenishment can occur during every high-water during both neap and spring tide periods.
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These rock pools have become an inspiration for the rapid construction of man-made tidal pools just at the shoreline of beaches. Besides tidal swimming pools, there is also the interesting phenomenon of stone-walled fish traps (see below).Īlong rocky areas where the ocean meets the land, forms small pockets of water that naturally occur called rock pools. To the north of Cape Town, there are only three tidal pools (listed in order below), while Mozambique has just one. The southern Africa coastline can be divided into sectors - from the cold waters of the Atlantic west coast beginning at Swakopmund, along the Cape south coast with its big waves, and up to the warm Natal on the Indian Ocean east coast.