|
South African freediving champion films KZN South Coast’s Sardine Run
Category: Conservation
About Ugu South Coast Tourism
Ugu South Coast Tourism (USCT) is the official destination management organisation of the Ugu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. The Ugu District comprises four local municipalities that include Umdoni, Umzumbe, Umuziwabantu and Ray Nkonyeni. USCT’s mandate is to grow tourism within the KZN South Coast. This involves implementing marketing and development initiatives that are aimed at showcasing the diverse offerings and experiences of the South Coast as tourist destination. A board of directors oversees USCT, headed by CEO, Phelisa Mangcu.
About KZN South Coast
Known as the ‘Paradise of the Zulu Kingdom’, the KZN South Coast stretches 120 kilometres from Scottburgh to Port Edward and inland to Harding. Here, the spirit of adventure can be discovered among the many cultural experiences, as well as the 35 nature trails and 58 beaches, ideal for activities like river rafting, abseiling, suspension bridges, paintball, surfing, SUP, canoeing, beach horse rides, shark cage diving and free diving. Nicknamed ‘The Golf Coast’, there are 11 golf courses on the KZN South Coast ranging in difficulty, with endless hiking, mountain biking and 4×4 trails for more rugged excursions. Promoting sustainability, the KZN South Coast has a growing agri-tourism sector that offers world-class produce and hosts tours and excursions. The region boasts a number of permanently managed Blue Flag beaches, and is home to some of the world’s top diving sites, Aliwal Shoal and Protea Banks. The originality continues with the annual Sardine Run, coined the #GreatestShoalonEarth, which is the largest biomass migration on earth and a marvel to witness. The region’s many nature reserves are inhabited by indigenous bird and wildlife, and it holds the title for ‘smallest desert on earth’, The Red Desert in Port Edward. The KZN South Coast is a fast-emerging MICE destination which also plays host to a number of high-profile events including the The Bike Fest, Uvukile Gospel Festival, Ugu Jazz, Ugu Film Festival and the South Coast Fever MTB & Trail Run Series.
So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?
So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?
So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?: Well I got a call from Mr Adam Kamdar of Township Hyper yesterday evening. Great dude and really in the know in the fishing scene. I had guests and dogs and things going and I could hardly hear, but his question went along the lines of…
“Sean, do you think this Covid thing was the cause of the bumper sardine run?”
Well ok that pushed just about all my buttons, so here is the full answer Adam…
AIS
AIS is the theme to this quasi-sardine report compiled as a result of the big question Adam has posed.
You can download an AIS App to your phone. There are many and they are free for the most. They show you, where the big and ugly fishing trawlers are. Right on your phone!
AIS.
Automatic Identification System. A great effort, and if everyone played along, saves lives (collision avoidance), and sealife (real-time tracking data to catch poachers fishing illegally).
BUT.
And this is a big BUT.
If you are a poacher, you can turn your AIS transponder, right the hell OFF! With a switch!
So this is how they do it then. When pair-trawling (the most destructive of all the illegal fishing methods), one of the collaborators, turns off. Easy as that. If the fleet ventures, in a group (read commercial fishing high-tech armada), then as they get near protected waters, one or two of them turns off, and enters the forbidden zone.
This happens ALL the time. The Sardine News tried to start a trawler watch to log sightings of suspect activity – but there is so much of it, that we got bogged right down right as we started. This was in Mozambique where these ugly boats are literally EVERYWHERE now.
Sardine Run 2020
Whilst we were imprisoned in lockdown thanks to our sheep governments interpretation of convid19, the Chinese/Japanese/Whoever fleets were plying the waters the whole time! Where? Slap bang on the sardine migration path. The AIS charts looked like a rugby scrum.
And if you have been in St. Francis this time of year, any year, you can smell the sardines from the harbor for miles around. Go sniffing around there for yourselves. Huge loads of sardines. Wonder where they go? And whose were they in the first place?
Whoever they are and wherever they are from, they are ALL rigged with the latest in navigation and depth-sounding equipment. Utilising sonar pulses pumped out by a high-powered transducer, they can detect and chase a shoal of sardines 12 or more miles away! And with their huge capacity and tethers to a mother ship lurking around the area somewhere, that is also a factory ship – that drops CANNED sardines off at the wharf – what chance does the public ever have of getting their share, in the usually slow years of sardine running?
So…
Did Convid19 affect the sardine run this merry 2020?
Nope. It’s a bumper sardine run like we always dream of. It’s beyond perfect. The gamefish have arrived. Sharks are getting their teeth pulled. The weather is fantastic and ecological patterns are in place. Those pundits that complain year after year are completely silent.
Only. They just don’t get it.
AIS.
Shows that there were fleets of fishing boats fishing, directly in the path that the hapless sardines take right now during this sardine run 2020. Whilst we were in lockdown, there were commercial fishermen out there loading up! Enjoying a totally illegal, totally unnecessary lockdown, and infringement of our basic human right to freedom to fish as well!
My answer then is this. These boats remove the exact amount of tonnes and tonnes of sardines missing on our beaches – with this migration – each year. Only this time, there were just so many they couldn’t catch them all.
“Our” sardines?
Another interesting question.
BUT, one thing is for sure, if not for the bumper numbers that this year has given, the sardines hardly ever make it past Port Elizabeth, before they are all netted and frozen.
So, that leaves us back at square one. We have NO voice. It’s time to get political. If not that, then at least investigative in that we need to know why these ships are allowed to be plundering our sardines.
Whilst we are in lockdown!
Almost sounds like a conspiracy in theory.
Adam, my good mate, over to you…
Stay up-to-date with The Sardine News covering the goings-on, during this bumper sardine run in year 2020!
We are on Facebook right here, we run an action-packed YouTube video channel right here. Please like and subscribe to our channel on YouTube if you would like to encourage us to pump out more and more video. We have done really well recently with some great video produced in conjunction with the Fishing Pro Shops Johan Wessels – chasing sardines down in the Port Shepstone area. We got out to sea twice and caught a bunch of gamefish in the surf zone, and in the Umzimkulu River Estuary. Click on over to our YouTube video channel right here. And please consider a Like and Subscribe. Thank you
Sardine activity 2020 increases on the KZN South Coast
|
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
We are on Facebook right here, we run an action-packed YouTube video channel right here.
Duarte Jnr at 7 yrs old release his first Mozambique Marlin
Duarte Jnr at 7 yrs old release his first Mozambique Marlin
Duarte Jnr at 7 yrs old release his first Mozambique Marlin: just please don’t ask if it’s black or a blue?!
Congratulations go out to young Duarte Rato Jnr, who, all on his own, and on his spinning outfit, caught and released his first Mozambique Marlin!
At age 7!
If a marlin can live to about 30. And a human say, 75. Then that marlin and Duarte Jnr would be about the same age! Cool stuff Duarte Jnr, I’ll start changing all the search terms to you instead of your Dad!
Yip, the FishBazaruto.com team took advantage fo a super-flat and calm day, to get out there and drag a bait or two around the inshore reefs and banks. And unbelievably, Duarte Jnr hooked up and fought the feisty little guy to the boat for a good few pics and a great release.
It’s been great watching these two kids growing up. Duarte Jnr has a little brother, Dario, who was just so amped about Duarte Jnr’s fish and was super-stoked to pose along with Duarte’s third kid, this one adopted – the ever-enthusiastic newbie angler – Diogo Martins (45 yrs young)! Otherwise knows as Diablo!
Anyway, it’s a helluva team that FishBazaruto.com present during the lockdown and other recreational times – or when customers are just simply not in existence!
That said…Mozambique’s absolute and outright victory at the Covid Competition might see people heading up to Bazaruto, correctly, as a safe-haven.
Just got to wonder when those borders are gonna be opened up?!
Get in touch if you like heading up thataway for a real escape sometime when it’s possible again. Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com or WhatsApp +27793269671.
See you there!
We run a YouTube Channel jam-packed with as much video as we can make, and we are on FaceBook too.
Off the Grid Living – Episode 5 – The Veggie Garden
Off the Grid Living – Episode 5 – The Veggie Garden
The Veggie Garden: Lockdown 2020 is in full swing as we approach our second half way mark. Whilst thinking of less fortunate communities and people, we are counting our blessings here in Jukskei Park, in Johannesburg. Where I am hanging out with the van Biljon family. Where Dad Jonny, has been prepping for off the grid living, for ages now.
And man has it worked out during lockdown.
Plus.
We have Baby Jake. Cute yes. But two and a half and we all know what that means. He is so fast too nowadays!
Luckily.
Jake absolutely loves the veggie garden. He could spend all day in there. Copying his Dad’s every action. Sometimes causing havoc in the process! It’s defintely his happy place. All he needs is a garden spade and he is happy as Larry (Lardner?).
Staying healthy in times of viral attack, is vital. And the healthy highlight of the day every day, is the delicious salad Jonny puts together, from the garden. Today was themed crab stick and yes, it was delicious. With a splash of Jonny’s home-made salad dressing, it was filled with colour, and crispy fresh flavours.
We totally realise that our video series is going up in a hap-hazard way. At least we started with Episode 1! At this stage we have completed and published;
Episode 1 – Intro
Episode 2 – The Growers
Episode 9 – Homebrew
And now this one, Episode 5?!
Next episodes deal with Jonny’s solar installations…and an innovative approach to a common solar wastage problem.
The next videos are almost also complete, in the meantime, please consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel, at the following link:
http://youtube.com/user/umzimkulu1/
We are on Facebook at http://facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/
Post by The Sardine News.