Crayfish
Cape Town and the West coast of South Africa is well known for its crayfish industry. Crayfish are found on the rocky seabeds and kelp beds along our coastline, but some live close inshore in cracks in rocks and in old jetties such as the one at Yzerfontein.
In the 1800's crayfish were regarded as pests and when caught in fishermen's nets, they would simply toss them overboard again! Dead crayfish often washed up on the shores and wagon loads of them were collected and sold to farmers as fertiliser.
The West coast crayfish has an interesting life-cycle - it takes from 7 to 10 years for a male crayfish to attain a catchable size of 65mm, while female crayfish may take up to 20 years to reach this size.
In days gone by crayfish were plentiful but these days (due to commercial exploitation) they have become relatively scarce. There are reports that back in the times of Van Riebeeck Hout Bay took on a red tinge because its bottom was carpeted with crayfish - if that is to be believed it is certainly not the case today.