The Sardine Run
A mystery as intriguing and spectacular as the wildebeest migration takes place from mid May to end of July in the sea from the Agulhas Bank of South Africa. Millions of Sardines (Sardinops sagax) form great shoals moving northward along the East Coast, migrating from their temperate water home to subtropical waters of the Wild Coast. The actual reasoning is not known, but the result is these sardines connect all manners of the marine world to form one of nature's greatest spectacles.Shoals can reach upto 7 km long, 1.5 km wide and 30 metres deep, and are clearly visible from the air. Following the shoals is an unparalleled concentration of marine predators including gannets, sharks, game fish and marine mammals. Their sheer numbers are of a scale witnessed nowhere else creating a feeding frenzy where predator meets prey.
We experienced this phenomenal event in June 2019. We spent 5 days out at sea searching the horizon for signs of gannets swirling overhead and dolphins on the chase. We encountered different weather every day, and watched a variety of marine life from the boat or underwater. It’s a true ‘blue safari’ experience where your days are spent at sea, searching the ‘blue savannah’ for the great Sardine Run. Just like on a land safari most the action happens early in the morning or late afternoon, giving you time to take in what you’ve just experienced and relax.
Our first day, we tested the waters and, in the afternoon, swam onto a small bait ball of the ‘red eye’ sardine. Here we witnessed the dolphins herding the sardines into a bait ball, seals, gannets and spinner sharks feeding, till the waters suddenly stilled and only the shimmering scales of 1000s of sardines were left dancing in the waters behind.
The other days we were not so lucky. Having said that, we still swam with sleeping pods of dolphins, watched nursery pods of dolphins, humpback whales heading north and came across an array of bird life including African Penguins and Albatross.
On our last day we hit the jackpot.
As we went out of harbour at 7.30am, with the beautiful sun rising, the sea was alive with hunting dolphins –thousands of them. The energy was captivating. With our expert guides, they found us a bait ball. Again it was the red eye, resident sardine, that move much faster and are much smaller. So we had to get in quickly. As we jumped in, we all felt the ‘frenzy’. We joined our guide and cautiously made our way to the edge of the action. There we watched the dolphins, gannets, bronze whaler and copper sharks all feeding on the sardines, so dynamically and without error this mass gathering of predators were working seamlessly in order to feed. We spied a brydes whale on the far side of us, then out of the blue, a small humpback whale popped up in front of us. Being a plankton feeder, he was definitely in the wrong place. As the sardines moved away, we managed to spend a wonderful 5 minutes with this juvenile
