Lobito Bay has water sufficient to allow large ships to unload close inshore.
Eastward as far as Cape Morris Jesup there are precipitous headlands and islands, as elsewhere, with deep water close inshore.
Experiments with labelled plaice, carried out in 1904 by the Marine Biological Association, showed that small plaice transplanted to the Dogger Bank in spring grew three times as rapidly as those on the inshore grounds, and the same result, with insignificant variations, has been obtained by similar experiments in each succeeding year.
It has accommodation for a large fleet with deep water close inshore, but the arid nature of the country caused it to be neglected by the early navigators, and with the growth of Cape Town Saldanha Bay was rarely visited.
At Lobito steamers can come close inshore and discharge cargo direct.