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Some major physical and oceanographic features of the Angolan marine system include a narrow continental shelf, the warm, southward flowing Angola Current, the plume of the Congo River in the north and the Angola-Benguela Front in the south. Depth, substrate types and latitude have been shown to account for species differences in demersal faunal assemblages including fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. The extremely narrow shelf between Tombwa (15°48′S) and Benguela (12°33′S) may serve as a barrier for the spreading of shelf-occurring species between the far south, which is influenced by the Angola-Benguela Front, and the equatorial waters of the central and northern areas. A similar pattern is evident for coastal and shallow-water species, including fishes, intertidal invertebrates and seaweeds, with species that have temperate affinities found in the far south and tropical species further to the north. In general the fauna and flora of the littoral zone appears to be consistent with a pattern of relatively low diversity of the shore and near-shore areas, that is characteristic of West Africa, but paucity of data for Angola may make such comparisons of diversity with other areas inappropriate at this stage. The Congo River delta and many features that are interspersed along the coast such as estuaries and associated floodplains, wetlands, lagoons, salt marshes and mangroves, support a rich suite of species, many of which are rare, endemic, migratory, and/or threatened, and provide important ecosystem services. While the ecological value of many areas or features is recognised, lack of any legal protection in the form of marine protected areas (MPAs) has been identified as one of the main challenges facing conservation and sustainable use of Angola’s marine and coastal biodiversity and habitats, in the face of multiple threats. A current process to identify and describe ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs) could provide a foundation for designating some MPAs in future.

Marine Biodiversity of Angola: Biogeography and Conservation