Dyer Island (South Africa)
| Dyer Island | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Atlantic Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 34 ° 40 ′ 57 ″ S , 19 ° 25 ′ 5 ″ E | |
|
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| length | 1 km | |
| width | 200 m | |
| surface | 20 ha | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Dyer Island is an island in the eastern South Atlantic near the west coast of South Africa . It is located about 6.5 kilometers from the coastal town of Pearly Beach , between the town of Gansbaai and Cape Agulhas . It belongs to the municipality of Overstrand in the Overberg district .
The flat and rocky island is almost 1000 meters long and up to 200 meters wide. About 200 meters off the southwest tip of the island is the much smaller Geyser Island .
The until then nameless island was taken over by the US emigrant Samson Dyer in 1806, who had guano mined, fur seals killed and penguin eggs collected here. Guano was extracted here until the 1980s. Today the island is uninhabited and protected.
Dyer Island is best known for the abundance of great white sharks in the ocean around the island. Even whales can often be spotted. There are numerous African penguins on the island . There is a fur seal colony with around 50,000 animals on Geyser Island.