A series of reports on State of the Oceans around South Africa, produced by Branch Oceans and Coasts of South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs, was introduced in December 2006. The reports initially considered environmental parameters for the purposes of establishing general principles, such as annual cycles, and long-term trends, which may provide insight into the local effects of global warming and climate change. The reports were intended to provide an overview of marine environmental conditions that prevailed during the preceding year, which may be of relevance to the management of South Africa’s marine and coastal resources and infrastructure. To this end, use was made of data from a variety of sources, including websites, satellite sensors, the South African Weather Service, coastal and moored instruments, and research and monitoring cruises. Intrinsic to all of these data series is an inevitable lag between the time of sample collection or data capture and the time when the data first become available for use. Furthermore, there is inherent variability in many data series, which makes it difficult to gauge trends from only a few years of data. Therefore, some out-of-date series are incorporated because they provide viable information on longterm trends. Environmental processes happening at basin-wide scales in the Southern, Atlantic and Indian oceans are likely to affect oceans around South Africa, as well as South Africa’s climate.