This part of the coast of Africa has a very narrow and fairly shallow continental shelf, with the shelf edge in the 70 to 100 m depth range and mostly less than 5 kilometers offshore, with several undersea canyons cutting into the shelf edge and continental slope. The shoreline is mostly sandy beach with a few outcrops of more resistant rock forming occasional headlands, as at Jesser Point. The seabed of the shelf is largely covered by sand and coarse, shelly sediment, with patches of coral reef. The reefs in the vicinity of Jesser Point are generally named for their distance from the launching area in the bay protected by the point.
