Mossel Bay

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Mossel Bay Mosselbaai
Town
From top, an aerial view of Mossel Bay. A view of the port at Mossel Bay (centre left). World War I war memorial (centre right). A view down Marsh Street of downtown Mossel Bay (bottom left). xam rock art just outside of Mossel bay (bottom right).
Coat of arms
Motto(s):  Jure et Justitia Valemus (Latin: We are strong in law and justice)
Mossel Bay Show map of Western Cape Mossel Bay Show map of South Africa Mossel Bay Show map of Africa
Coordinates: 34°11′00″S 22°08′00″E / 34.18333°S 22.13333°E / -34.18333; 22.13333
Country	South Africa
Province	Western Cape
District	Garden Route
Municipality	Mossel Bay
Established	1848
Area [1]
• Total	36.8 km2 (14.2 sq mi)
Population  (2011)[1]
• Total	99,000
• Density	2,700/km2 (7,000/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011) [1]
• Black African	12.7%
• Coloured	51.5%
• Indian/Asian	0.8%
• White	34.3%
• Other	0.7%
First languages (2011) [1]
• Afrikaans	81.5%
• English	9.2%
• Xhosa	6.5%
• Other	2.8%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)	6506
PO box	6500
Area code	044

Mossel Bay (Afrikaans: Mosselbaai) is a harbour town of about 120,000 people on the Southern Cape (or Garden Route) of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the country's seat of parliament, Cape Town (which is also the capital city of the Western Cape), and 400 km west of Port Elizabeth, the largest city in the Eastern Cape. The older parts of the town occupy the north-facing side of the Cape St Blaize Peninsula, whilst the newer suburbs straddle the Peninsula and have spread eastwards along the sandy shore of the Bay.

The town's economy relied heavily on farming, fishing and its commercial harbour (the smallest in the Transnet Port Authority's stable of South African commercial harbours),^[2] until the 1969 discovery of natural offshore gas fields led to the development of the gas-to-liquids refinery operated by PetroSA. Tourism is another driver of Mossel Bay's economy.