Page 22 - Bulletin 2 1998

19

JOHN D. GILCHRIST, THE ST. JAMES AQUARIUM AND FALSE BAY

A.C. Brown

Introduction

False Bay has been known to European explorers since the 15th Century and to the

indigenous people for centuries before that, of course. Van Riebeeck admired it during the
first settlement at the Cape and subsequent settlers speculated as to whether False Bay might

not provide a safer harbour than did Table Bay. The Bay abounded with marine life and

during the 18th and 19th Centuries a number of visiting naturalists from overseas made
collections along its shores, collections which included not only marine animals but also

marine algae. Fishing by rod or hand line was undertaken, both for recreation and for profit,

and in the 19th Century seine-netting greatly increased the commercial catch, providing
much-needed employment for economically disadvantaged groups.

The second half of the 19th Century was the great age of marine exploratory expeditions, and

vessels such as the Eugenies, the Navarra and the Challenger, to name but a few, called at the
Cape as part of their research programmes. Some entered False Bay and made scientific

observations. These expeditions were important not only for the data they collected but,

perhaps more importantly, for bringing home to the public and the authorities the importance
of marine scientific investigations. They had an impact on the South African Museum

(established 1825) and on the fledgling South African Philosophical Society (formed in 1877

and later to become the Royal Society of South Africa.)

So by the closing years of the 19th Century, quite a bit was known about the sea and marine

life around the shores of the Cape of Good Hope, including False Bay, but that knowledge

was fragmentary and largely ad hoc. It was also frequently misleading. But things were about
to change. In 1895 the Government of Cape Colony decided to appoint a qualified marine