Agulhas Bank
![Map of the Agulhas Bank](/Images/godic/202412/14/Agulhas_Bank_NOAA_ETOPO13425.jpg")
![The South African marine bioregions from the 2004 classification. The 2011 ecoregions are slightly different, but the 2004 Agulhas Bioregion (in dark green) is virtually the same as the 2011 Agulhas Ecoregion.](/Images/godic/202412/14/Bioregions_of_SA_EEZ3425.png")
![Eddies of the Agulhas Current meanders past the Agulhas Bank leaking warm and salty water into the South Atlantic before retroflecting back into the Indian Ocean](/Images/godic/202412/14/Agulhas_Current_NLOM_3425.png")
![Light blue plankton in a 150 km (93 mi) wide anti-cyclonic (counter-clockwise) Agulhas ring 800 km (500 mi) south the South Africa. Such eddies, among the largest in the world, are peeled off the Agulhas Current on the eastern edge of the Agulhas Bank.](/Images/godic/202412/14/The_Eddy_and_the_Plankton_-_NASA_Earth_Observatory3425.jpg")
The Agulhas Bank (/əˈɡʌləs/, from Portuguese for Cape Agulhas, Cabo das Agulhas, "Cape of Needles") is a broad, shallow part of the southern African continental shelf which extends up to 250 km (160 mi) south of Cape Agulhas before falling steeply to the abyssal plain.