Whether you are a photographer, diver or simply enjoy nature, there is one place you need to be from May to July… South Africa’s Wild Coast!
On land you have one of the country’s greatest rural areas, unspoiled, wild and beautiful with a coastline that requires all the superlatives you can muster. But… at this time of year the focus is offshore in the Indian Ocean as millions of sardines swim up the coast to feed on a seasonal plankton bloom which, just at this time of year, moves in a column of nutrient rich cold water up the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast towards KwaZulu Natal pushing the warm south flowing Agulhas current away from the coast. They are driven closer to the coast by the large numbers of predators, dolphin and shark included, following them.
Forming into tight bait balls as they pack together for protection against the predators, the dolphin round them upwards towards hundreds of waiting Cape Gannets, which dive for them at high speeds as they get closer to the surface. Watching from a boat or as a diver close the underwater action, this is a superb adrenaline rush from launch, in most cases through the surf, to the action on the surface as the gannets dive into the water from considerable height to get deep enough to reach the sardines with dolphin leaping out of the water and occasional whale breaching!
It varies hugely from day to day and visibility changes depending on weather and rain. Underwater, the action is frenzied when the bait balls are within reach of the gannets as well as the large predators. Divers can, rarely, find themselves in the way of the tail fin of a predator focused solely on the sardines, so need to keep super alert. A wide variety of game fish follow the sardines so any sighting is possible including sail fish.
The Sardine Run is the largest biomass migration on the planet – outweighing even the annual Wildebeest migration in the Serengeti. There is still time to book your place in the front row of one of the greatest shows on earth.
We recommend these highly respected diving specialists:
*Offshore Africa are based in Port St Johns and are very well respected.
*African Watersports from Umkomaas, KZN, base themselves in Port St Johns just for the Sardine Run.
*Pisces Divers, from Simon’s Town, base themselves in Cintsa for Sardine season.
These top Sardine Run diving companies know what they are doing and will give you the experience of a lifetime.
You can also get to the area and do your own off shore fishing by staying in one of our carefully selected places. The seas team when the sardines are around and this is a really lovely time of the year to enjoy the Wild Coast. For a boat to view the surface action from a larger centre, use Southern Cross Cruises who take guests out from East London.
As the sardines move up the coast to KwaZulu Natal, pockets are pushed closer to the beach and the underwater feeding frenzies are matched by the excitement felt by humans! Media alerts along the South Coast get people who are curious, those searching for a once a year seafood bonanza and the fishermen with licenses to net sardines close to shore and haul them onto the beach, rushing to the newest sighting. It is feverish action and at its peak, people wade into the sea to grab the sardines themselves by hand, women use their skirts and the hopeful, patrol the beach with buckets for sardines which have spilled out of the nets.
