The moorings at the False Bay Yacht club are well protected from south easterly waves as they are in the lee of the naval base harbour, and are in the lee of the peninsula for westerly waves, and the water is relatively deep. Queensland: Springfield Lakes - 57 years [7], The water circulation is primarily wind driven. [22] Some of them are listed here for the west coast of the bay from north to south (within the TMNPMPA), for offshore parts of the bay, and for the east coast of the bay, also from north to south, roughly following the coastline where relevant: The famous naval base of Simon's Town is in Simon's Bay, about halfway down the length of the False Bay coast of the Cape Peninsula. Northern Territory: Casuarina - 76 years. [7], In pre-colonial times False Bay along with most of the Southern African coast provided sustenance to the Khoisan or Khoekhoen tribe who collected seafood from the shores and deposited the shells in middens along the coast which indicate usage over some 10 000 years. Mixing with offshore water has a significant effect on surf zone and inshore water quality, but the effects of microbial processes on inshore water quality and the relative contribution of anthropogenic sources of nutrients remains unknown, but likely to be increasing. Charles Dagnall took this picture of the fishing boats in Kalk Bay Harbour last week. False Bay is open to the south, and the prevailing open ocean swell arrives from the southwest, so the exposure varies considerably around the coastline. The highest peak on this side is Kogelberg at 1,269 m.[1], In plan the bay is approximately square with rather wobbly edges, being roughly the same extent from north to south as east to west (30 km), with the entire southern side open to the ocean. From Gordon's Bay the coastline swings roughly south, and zig-zags its way along the foot of the Hottentots Holland Mountains to Cape Hangklip which is at nearly the same latitude as Cape Point. Western Australia: Manning, Waterford - 87 years. Notable peaks associated with the bay include Koeëlberg (1,289 m (4,229 ft)), which rises from the water itself forming the highest point of the Kogelberg, as well as Somerset Sneeukop (1590m / 5217 feet) and Wemmershoek Peak (1,788 m (5,866 ft)) which are clearly visible across the bay. This ecoregion has the highest number of South African endemics, and is a breeding area for many species. There is also a long sandy beach on the east side of the bay at the foot of the Kogelberg. The transition between the Agulhas ecoregion and the cooler Benguela ecoregion is at Cape Point, on the western boundary of False Bay. Suburbs of Greater Cape Town stretch right across the Cape Flats from Simon's Town halfway down the Cape Peninsula to the north-eastern corner at Gordon's Bay. [7], There have been symposia, in 1968 and 1989, on the socio-ecological importance of False Bay, with reviews of the oceanography and biology of the bay and human impact on it.[7]. The sand, silt and mud deposits were lithified by pressure and then folded during the Permian–Triassic Cape Orogeny to form the Cape Fold Belt, which extends along the western and southern coasts of the Western Cape. There are also two small towns of the Overberg region on the east coast of the bay, Rooi-Els and Pringle Bay. [9]:App3 Wave height of southwesterly swells decreases from west to east along the north coast of False Bay due to the effects of refraction and friction of the wave base on larger areas of offshore reef before reaching the shoreline. [7], The three main rock formations are the late-Precambrian Malmesbury group (sedimentary and metamorphic rock), the Peninsula granite, a huge batholith that was intruded into the Malmesbury Group about 630 million years ago, and the Table Mountain group sandstones that were deposited on the eroded surface of granite and Malmesbury series basement about 450 million years ago. In winter the surface temperature tends to be much the same everywhere. During the critical water shortage of the 2018 Cape Town water crisis two reverse osmosis desalination plants were installed at Strandfontein and Monwabisi resort on the north coast of the bay They were all operating by August 2018,[23] but there have been problems and shutdowns since then due to algal blooms, a natural phenomenon quite common in the area. [7], The South Atlantic high shifts latitude with the seasons, following the sun, and this causes a large variation in the wind pattern over the passage of the year. Outside the bay, but influencing the wave patterns in it, is Rocky Bank, an extensive area of relatively flat sandstone reef between 20 and 30 m depth.