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The Great Fish estuary
(33°30' S;
27°8' E)
is situated northeast of the coastal town of Port Alfred and forms the southern border of the Ciskei coast of the Eastern Cape. The river is approximately 730 km long with a catchment area of 30 366 sq. km. About 3% of the catchment land-cover was under agriculture; most of this comprised a mixture of temporary commercial irrigated agriculture, improved grasslands, commercial forestry, temporary commercial dryland agriculture and permanent commercial irrigated agriculture. Approximately 3% of the Great Fish catchment was degraded, consisting primarily of degraded shrubland, bushland and grassland. About 94% of the catchment was natural and consisted mainly of shrubland, grassland and bushland with some forest and woodland. Urban development, mainly residential, comprised less than 1% of the catchment land-cover. Major towns in the Great Fish catchment included Peddie in the lower catchment, Fort Beaufort, Adelaide, Bedford, Somerset East, and Craddock in the middle catchment and Middleburg in the upper catchment.
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