Dive into Africa’s Wild Southwest Coast: The Benguela Current

By the hundreds, seals dive into the heaving waves, into the pulsing lifeline that sustains them: the Benguela Current, The Nature Conservancy’s newest frontier in Africa and one of our “Big 5” priority places. 

But in the distance, industrial fishing vessels cut sharp shapes on the horizon, stark symbols of the fact that Africa’s wild southwestern coast is at a turning point.

An Irreplaceable Seascape

The Benguela Current’s cold nutrient-rich waters flow more than 4,200 miles from the tip of South Africa northward along Namibia to Angola, pulling nutrients from the ocean’s depths up to the surface, fueling blooms of phytoplankton that are foundations of a robust food chain, from plankton to sardines to anchovies, that supports Cape fur seals and many other rare and at-risk species, including Cape penguins, Cape and Bank cormorants, southern right whales and the endemic Heaviside’s dolphin. 

This extraordinary seascape, shaped by towering underwater mountains, canyons, giant kelp forests and cold water coral reefs, is one of the planet’s most productive marine ecosystems. The current’s rugged coastline, which spans a distance greater than New York to London, is largely arid, with hundreds of miles of desert pushing right up to the ocean. A few precious estuaries bloom where rivers reach the sea. The mingling of fresh water and salt water gives rise to incredible biodiversity, and estuaries serve as sanctuaries for seabirds and “nurseries of the sea” where fish come to breed. 

But today, a growing wave of challenges threatens the Benguela’s might and magic.

Threats to the Benguela

Illegal and unregulated fishing by foreign fleets steals millions of tons of fish from local economies each year. Climate change is warming the ocean, weakening the upwelling cycle itself and reducing the nutrient supply. Pollution, offshore development, increasing human populations, inconsistencies in policies and funding gaps further strain to an ecosystem already under pressure. Water levels are dropping in estuaries as catchments, all the land that feeds into rivers, are hammered by erosion, overextraction and drought worsened by climate change. And today, less than 1% of the Benguela is under any form of protection. 

That’s why we’re stepping up to protect the current with a source-to-sea approach. Though these life-sustaining waters face significant threats, there is great opportunity to protect the Benguela seascape if we act now.

Taking Action

Through the Blue Benguela Partnership, co-created with the Blue Nature Alliance and supported by the Benguela Current Convention, we’re working with regional and local organizations alongside the governments of Namibia, Angola and South Africa to reduce destructive fishing and advance marine and coastal protection that benefits both people and nature across borders. Drawing on decades of experience in the Western Indian Ocean and other seascapes around the world, we bring unique capabilities to interconnected challenges, from marine spatial planning to electronic monitoring of fish catches to water funds. This is a bold commitment to conserve a truly irreplaceable seascape that sustains more than just life underwater.

Namibia’s Bicycle Fishers

With its productive fisheries, ranging from hake and horse mackerel to sardines and deep-sea red crab, the Benguela also provides food for nearly 40 million people across South Africa, Namibia and Angola. It’s one of the largest contributors to Namibia’s gross domestic product, with thousands of people depending on the current to simply make ends meet. Among them are Namibia’s “bicycle fishers.”

At dawn in Swakopmund, a coastal city in Namibia, a line of bicycles emerges out of the fog. Their riders, wrapped in scarves and windbreakers, pedal slowly toward the jetty while balancing buckets, nets and rods. The bicycles are more than transport; they are lifelines. Many have traveled for miles along Namibia’s coast to catch sardines, mackerel and horse mackerel brought near shore by the current.

Shiwaovanhu Paulus, 33, is a single mother of four. In 2022, local teenage boys taught her how to fish, and now she fishes full-time, for four to five days a week, nine to 10 hours a day. As the sun breaks through, Shiwaovanhu and the rest of the fishers cast their lines into the ocean. Here, patience pays. Some stare out into the horizon in silence, some sing in the cold, and some pray. They all wait. 

Then suddenly they get a pull, and they reel in their catch of the day. Shiwaovanhu says she can catch up to 30 fish on a good day, which earns her up to N$ 1,000 (USD $59) on a good week. Others catch just 10 fish a day, depending on luck. Like many others, Shiwaovanhu sells half her catch and keeps the rest to feed her family. Today she’s hopeful for a good day. For these bicycle fishers in Namibia, the Benguela Current isn’t just a force of nature, it’s an engine of survival.

From High-Tech Tools to Deep Sea Canyons

To make a decisive and lasting difference in the Benguela Current, we are taking an integrated source-to-sea approach that centers on three priorities: protecting high-biodiversity ocean habitats, reducing illegal and destructive fishing and mobilizing sustainable sources of funding for conservation. 

Snapshot of Recent Progress:

• We’ve supported local partner CapMarine to implement a pilot project in South Africa with electronic monitoring (EM) technology, laying the groundwork to scale EM across the Benguela. Fishers agree to have sensors placed on their vessels that continually record fishing activity and catches, then transmit that data to onshore teams that monitor adherence to regulations. 
• With the support of TNC and partner Red Dune Environment, Namibia enacted a new Sustainable Blue Economy policy that formally integrates fisheries, shipping, mining and tourism, creating new pathways for sustainable, equitable use of marine resources. This change will make work easier for partners like Ocean Conservation Namibia, which focuses on rescuing seals at the Cape Cross Seal Reserve from plastic pollution.
• In South Africa, we’ve worked with SANParks to protect 78,460 acres that will be added to Augrabies Falls National Park, a biodiversity hotspot in the Orange River catchment, the source of one of the current’s largest estuaries. 

These efforts and more are about ensuring that the Benguela continues to sustain life on land and at sea so that Cape Cross remains alive with the thunder of seals, fishers like Shiwaovanhu Paulus can keep feeding their families and the Benguela Current’s irreplaceable seascape will thrive for generations to come.

Learn more about TNC’s “Big 5” Irreplaceable Landscapes in Africa:  Blue Benguela, Congo Basin, Greater KAZA, Kenya-Tanzania Rangelands and Lake Tanganyika Basin.