First sardines 2022 season have been spotted!

First sardines 2022 season have been spotted!

First sardines 2022 season have been spotted!

Confirmed sightings have been reported in from between East London and Mazeppa, by to Brad the Pilot. Who flew that area early this morning. Then at Qora Mouth, validated sightings were made deeper off the coast. With bird activity being reported as odd – gannets flying up and down as if the sardines are already everywhere.

Prognosis

According to the many sardine spies and reporters stationed up and down the South African east coast, we have a problem. It is not permanent.But it is playing a big role in why we are having little to no sardine action close in and towards KZN Natal at the moment (last year this time nets were already in)

And it’s…

Dirty water!

Yip, that poison soup left behind after the two floods we recently survived, is not going away. There just has not been enough current to move the huge plume of septic runoff down the coast like usual. It is still siff brown right up and down the coast.

A spearo therapy business would take off right now.

Huge surf

The other factor has been the absolutely huge surf pounding the coastline recently. It has been relentless along the entire coastline.

Only a calm sea will entice those little guys int the shallows.

Warm water

24 Degrees on most days that I have been out there. Sardines like it cold. Like own to 19 or so. We will need a few days of east winds to cause the upswelling that drops the temperatures to these levels.

And then we need a few days of gentle west winds to calm the ocean.

So these three factors together could be the reason we ain’t seeing any sardines close in. And that the likely conclusion is that the sardines are already here and travelling north.

Very far out to sea.

Only when we can tick off all the required conditions as explained above, is when we may see some sardines on the beaches!