Hundreds of hottentot seabream aggregate in a cavern on one of False Bay’s colorful rocky reefs, locally known as Atlantis. Hottentot seabream are found only on the coastline of Southern Africa and nowhere else in the world.
A hundred years ago, this is what a dive into False Bay could have looked like: dozens of species of reef fishes, some of them growing over thirty years old and up to two meters long. Today the only place where one can get a similar view is in the kelp forest exhibit of Cape Town's Two Oceans Aquarium. Decades of hook-and-line fishing and spearfishing have caused a shocking decline in the resident reef fishes of False Bay.
