The Addo Elephant National Park Marine Protected Area is a marine conservation area in Algoa Bay, adjacent to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, near Gqeberha, previously Port Elizabeth.

[4] The original section of the park was founded in 1931, in part due to the efforts of Sydney Skaife, in order to provide a sanctuary for the eleven remaining elephants in the area.

[6] The Addo MPA is focused on protecting economically important linefish like kob and white steenbras.

[6][1] The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is responsible for issuing permits, quotas and law enforcement.

All six islands and their adjacent waters are declared nature reserves and form part of the Addo Elephant National Park.

Winters are cool but mild and summers are warm but considerably less humid and hot than more northerly parts of South Africa's east coast.

[1] The MPA is in the warm temperate Agulhas inshore marine ecoregion to the east of Cape Point which extends eastwards to the Mbashe River.

Rocky shores and reefs provide a firm fixed substrate for the attachment of plants and animals.

Finally there is open water, above the substrate and clear of the sessile biota, where the organisms must drift or swim.

The sediment is continually being moved around by wave action, to a greater or lesser degree depending on weather conditions and exposure of the area.

This means that sessile organisms must be specifically adapted to areas of relatively loose substrate to thrive in them, and the variety of species found on a sandy or gravel bottom will depend on all these factors.

Loose sedimentary bottoms have one important compensation for their instability, animals can burrow into the sediment and move up and down within its layers, which can provide feeding opportunities and protection from predation.

[15]: Ch.3 The open sea Species protected by this MPA: Mammals: Birds: Fish: Invertebrates: The MPA is in the warm temperate Agulhas inshore marine bioregion to the east of Cape Point which extends eastwards to the Mbashe River.

[13][14] Nelson Mandela Bay has the largest proportion of endemic marine invertebrates and seaweeds on the South African coastline.