[4] The namesake of the town is major Hendrik "Henty" Stefanus van der Merwe who discovered the place in 1929 while looking for water.

He had been hunting a rhinoceros in the arid hinterland of the Namibian coast near the Brandberg in order to collect a reward from a museum in Pennsylvania that was in search of a rhino skeleton.

A few miles south of the river mouth they discovered a deep sand valley with reed grass growing in it, advertising the presence of fresh water.

Van der Merwe liked the place and after delivering the bones and collecting his reward, returned the following Christmas to build a wooden hut in the riverbed.

[7] Henties Bay is situated in the National West Coast Recreation Area, but there are not many restrictions, particularly for driving off-road on the beach and across the plains.

Specifically endangered, are the lichen fields which take decades to recover from tracks cut through them, and the Damara tern which is endemic to the Skeleton Coast and threatened by habitat loss.

Plans also include an environmentally sustainable facility for the production of Jatropha, a source of bio-fuel which is adapted to arid environments.

According to designers, the desalination plant would have capacity to supply water to the nearby towns of Uis, Okombahe and Henties Bay.

[11] In July 2017, the University of Namibia (UNAM) revealed plans to establish a marine engineering and mining training facility at the coast.

[12] In October 2020 UNAM inaugurated a desalination drinking water bottling plant, an extension of the institution's development plan which has been commissioned in May 2019.