Maputo Bay

Maputo Bay (Baía de Maputo), formerly Delagoa Bay, Baía da Lagoa (in Portuguese) is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique, between 25° 40' and 26° 20' S, with a length from north to south of over 90 km long and 32 km wide.

Description

The bay is the northern termination of the series of lagoons which line the coast from Saint Lucia Bay. The opening is toward the N.E. The southern part of the bay is formed the Machangulo peninsula, which on its inner or western side affords safe anchorage. At its N.W. point is Port Melville. North of the peninsula is Inhaca Island, and beyond it a smaller island, "Ilha dos Portugueses" (The Portugueses' Island), formerly known as Elephant's Island.

In spite of a bar at the entrance and a number of shallows within, Maputo Bay forms a valuable harbour, accessible to large vessels at all seasons of the year. The surrounding country is low and very unhealthy, but the island of Inhaca (Inyak) has a height of 73 m, and is used as a sanatorium. A river 3.7 to 5.5 m deep, known as the Manhissa or Komati, enters the bay at its northern end; several smaller streams, the Matola (from the north), the Umbeluzi (from the west), and the Tembe (from the south), from the Lebombo Mountains, meet towards the middle of the bay in the estuary called by the Portuguese the Espírito Santo, but generally known as the English river; and the Maputo, which has its headwaters in the Drakensberg, enters in the south, as also does the Umfusi river. These rivers are the haunts of the hippopotamus and the crocodile.Humpback whales and several species of dolphins live in the water while Southern right whales and Dugongs were once numerous in the bay and are rare today.