Year after year usually in the winter time of June and July in South Africa, one of natures great occasions comes about. Countless small sardines leave their breeding waters of the Agulhas Bank found in the southern waters of South Africa where the cool Atlantic Ocean and warm Indian Ocean meet. It is the coming together of these 2 oceans which make the waters perfect breeding grounds since they are loaded in nutrients.

The exact reasons why the sardine migrate far from such nutrient rich waters are certainly not well-known nevertheless they flourish in water temperatures of close to twenty Celsius. Because winter seas of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal cool, it is regarded the sardines take advantage of their enlarging area and venture north up the South Africa shoreline.

Measuring nine inches long, the small sardines journey in gigantic shoals clearly seen from the surface of the sea. Often the shoals are usually many km’s long and up to a km wide hence in terms of numbers, they simply compare with Africa’s other famous migration of the wildebeest when they venture north through the Serengeti to the Masai Mara.

The Sardine Run is really a significant event for the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal. As sardines are more or less at the bottom in the food chain, it isn’t much of a surprise that when they create shoals more than a million strong that predators are usually soon on their trail. Beneath the waves, the shoals of sardine are mercilessly pursued by sharks, tuna, dolphin as well as whales. As they come under attack, the small sardines form defensive bait-balls but it’s very little protection because time and again, the predators hit the bait-balls, taking some of the small fish with each strike. There are such large numbers of sardines and predators in the sea throughout the Sardine Run that the Natal Shark Board remove the shark nets that typically protect the beaches to stop the sharks, dolphins and other large sea creatures from getting trapped and dying.

When the sardines come under attack, they’re forced into shallower waters where they start to come under assault from above as the sardines come within range of gannets who participate in the bountiful banquet that nature has offered. Humans get in on the act as well. As sardines move to attempt to dodge the array of predators, they move into shallow waters small fishing boats move in the fish are basically dragged ashore by crowds of waiting folks. In addition to the fishing nets a variety of storage containers are used to capture the little fish by people wanting to gather as much as they are able to take.

The Sardine Run is an event of nature and it is therefore never guaranteed. There were no shows recently but every wintertime, the Greatest Shoal on Earth is impatiently anticipated by people that live throughout the coastline of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.

The Sardine Run is without question definitely one of the oceans most amazing events.. This article, Sardine Run in KwaZulu Natal is released under a creative commons attribution license.

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