River
Fish River
650 km from source to mouth · Namibia.
NamibiaFlows into Orange River3rd longest in Namibia
In numbers
Length
650km
Average flow
24m³/s
Basin
83,036km²
Drop
1,186m
from 1,252 m to 66 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
650 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,252 m
- 102 kmMariental14,789 people
- 366 kmNeckartal Dam
- 431 kmLöwenflusstributary
- 526 kmFish River Canyon
- 650 kmOrange Riverat 66 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Namibia
At the mouth it carries 24 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 102 seconds. It drops from 1,252 m to 66 m, 1.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 83,036 km², about the size of AE. 63,000 people live in it. Highest water: March; lowest: from July to October. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (49% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- MarientalLargest city on its banks · 14,789 people
- Eros Airport (ERS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 242 km from the cityCar hire at ERS airport (Windhoek)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to May and from August to OctoberThe best months to visit
Fish River, month by month
Highest water: March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from April to May and from August to October.
From about 4.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 74 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Fish River: the basin in numbers
83,036 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 63,000people live in the basin
- 1/km²people per km²
- 1,179maverage altitude of the basin
- 166mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 18.6°Caverage air temperature
- 12%protected areas
- 0.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 37% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Fish River: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
- 1WaterfallsFish River Waterfall
- 2Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Fish River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Orange River
South Africa2,200 km800 m³/sTributaries (1)
Also: Löwenfluss
LesothoNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1143836) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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