No End To The Sardines By Kevin in The Transkei
No End To The Sardines By Kevin in The Transkei: Kevin checks in!
Howzit chaps this is Kevin at Qora Mouth
just north of Mazeppa Bay in the Southern Transkei
well the netting is going on fast and furious in KZN
um you’ll see
by the stills that are on the screen right now
how big these nets are guys
this is like major haul of sardines
and it’s probably due to the predator activity
uh
we’ve seen some vids of just bronze whales everywhere
gorging themselves on these sardines
so what happens is that
if there’s a bigger shoal moving through
these predators
just start fracturing it into little bays
and then um
they get very close to the shore
and when these kind of bait balls happen
close to the shore
those netters have the perfect opportunity
just to surround that whole bait ball and grab it all
so yeah wonderful news for the netters
and wonderful news for the public
because you can bet that the price per crate
is gonna come down drastically
over the next week or so if this goes on
and we can move a little bit uh
south now uh
into the Eastern Cape um
yesterday huge shoals around the Cintsa area again
so they’ve moved away from PE
they’ve moved through East London
they’re at Cintsa right now um
you can see the video with the dolphins
and the birds diving uh
that’s a big shoal chaps
and this is shoals that are coming behind
what’s already in case
it in so yeah
and I can also say that where I’m sitting here
in the Southern Transkei
about an hour ago
a shoal moved past um about 5 kilometers out
it looks like it’s about a kilometer long shoal
which is big shoal uh
thousands of birds diving on it
and it’s already out of sight
I mean it’s literally gone around the corner
within about an hour
hour and a half so they are moving extremely fast um
probably due to 0 current um
we very seldom get these kind of favourable conditions
in in the southern Transkei
normally the current screaming but um yeah
it’s died right down um
there’s a slight south Westerly blowing uh
which means the surface of the water
is also moving against the current
so those sards are right on the surface
and they’re booking it north
so yeah I’d say
Port St Johns could probably
expect sardines over the next uh
24 hours to 48 hours probably
this shoal that’s by me is gonna stick to the coast now
um because the water is sitting out about 18 degrees
which is fine for them
remember the last shoal moved out deep after uh port um
after East London because the water was too warm
but this shoal has found cooler water
so they’re staying in close
that’s good news for the guys that are with sitting um
in Port Saint Johns
waiting to dive with their clients on these bait balls
so it should reach there and yeah
it’s game on guys
I think the mother lode is still to come to KZN
I don’t think it’s over until the lady sings
and she hasn’t sung yet so yeah
good things coming it’s a bumper year about to happen
so yeah keep it real guys and remember
keep give those netters a lot of space
if you’re down there watching them
um it’s not easy work and it’s actually dangerous work
so give them space look for a distance and um
we’ll keep you updated as things change cheers
