Well I missed the Couta action up North because I went south on Sunday…meh! Plenty Couta came out North and even one or two Wahoo! The rest of the week it was Snoek here and there mostly North with one or two coming out upper to middle South coast. Then the SW wind and rain came with some big swell Thursday and today (Friday) and a lot of rivers have popped up on the North and a few on the South coast. I hope this has not put paid to spearfishing in KZN before Xmas as the Mackie action has reached full swing! One or two small Garrick also came out but it’s basically the end of the Garrick run until next winter.
In the fish pic’s this week we have Adrian Padt and Master Juggs Holzman with Snoek boat dive South, Darren Halse with a Red steenbras boat dive PE, David Woods with a decent Couta shore dive North, Johan Boshoff with a Cobia and Catface shore dive South, Jono Geyer with a 4.5kg Catface shore dive South, Loyd with a Chanos and Couta combo shore dive North, Master Alistair Malcolm Louw with a 31kg GT Adventually Bush camp Sodwana, Master Don Solomon with a Belly and Tail combo boat dive South, Master Juggs Holzman with a brace of Snoek shore dive North, Master Juggs Holzman with a Garrick shore dive South, Master Louis Schourie with size 6kg Rock salmon shore dive Durban, Master Richardt Botes with a Snoek shore dive North, Rinalen Naidu with his 1st Wahoo boat dive North, Tanya Nadauld with a lovely Scotsman boat dive South and Zander with a Snoek shore dive North.
Saturday morning is glassed off with a light NE wind starting up around lunchtime and blowing into the night. Swell runs at 2m from the South at 10 seconds. Sunday the light NE from Saturday continues to blow early bells and picks up speed at midmorning. Swell runs at 1.8m from the SE at 9 seconds.
Well on paper (my pc screen) Saturday looks great for a dive if you do not mind the swell and Sunday might also be okay but from reports I am getting up and down the coast finding un-muddied water local and North coast is going to be difficult to say the least…boaties should find some viz out in the deeps perhaps!
Third wave of sardines have hit the beach in Durban!
Third wave of sardines have hit the beach in Durban! Adam Kamdar has his finger right on the pulse of each and every sardine as they try to get past Durban. Adam reports for a number of media outlets that count on him daily for sardine, and fishing updates.
And just yesterday Adam sent in the following pics…
Pics by Adam Kamdar
Third wave of sardines hit Durban
Adam Kamdar reporting right from the beach at Durban. As the third wave of sardines hit.
Adam (who has been in Durban his entire life) has been through a number of sardine runs. Many of us have. And we all sit comfortably on the sidelines as the chaos of sardine fever first hits. Knowing full well that the sards come in many waves.
Starting with the pilot shoals – usually being hounded by gamefish and cetaceans. Birds.
Then come the bigger shoals and these are normally being herded by all of the above plus the entire shark population of Africa. Millions of seabirds check-in now too. The cetaceans become more numerous and varied. Seals even pull in from the Cape. These shoals seem to just get bigger and bigger until…they vanish!
Sometimes for a week. Sometimes a month. Even two months. But there is always a far more calm and controlled third wave of sardines to chase.
Fishing Roundup during this third wave of sardines
Garrick and kob time. Obviously, the Port St. Johns fiasco continues as a powerless DAFF grapple with the immense and dangerous task at hand – stopping the jiggers.
There are very many small, er, tiny kob around too. Not to be confused with little snappers or snotties. Snotties, which are delicious and only grow to about 2 or 3kgs, have THREE distinct teeth. Sharp ones. These are the ONLY small salmon/kob/whatever, that you can catch.
Put ALL the rest back please!
Some large grunter have been on the menu, it’s all about the bait though. Very fussy fish those guys.
There are some shad about too, again, nobody checking so it’s still a free-for-all. Phone DAFF if you see any criminal activity or bag limits being exceeded. DAFF need all the help they can get.
There are lots of blacktails in the gulleys and in the shorebreaks. Zebra fish too.
Border Spearfishing Event
Every year, every spearo in Southern Africa eagerly seeks out one of the coveted invites to the Border annual spearfishing event. Held in the Transkei, the event is limited to limit the ecological damage an open spearfishing compo could cause.
But hell they got some nice fish…Jason Heyne penned up the story.
Sardine Run 2021 Sightings Map: An interactive and up-to-date calendar map recording all legitimate sardine sightings this 2021!
Sardine Run 2021 Sightings Map
Use the map by moving it around the same as a Google Map. Click on the sardine icons (which are date labelled), and a pop-up will pop-up and detail the sighting. With photos where available. Check back often to see the progress of the sardines as we move into sardine prime-time.
Use the big icon top left of the map below (arrow and box) to see a list of the sightings…enjoy!
Some of the sightings even include photos. But to keep up with the action and progress of the sardines this 2021, there is no better place than place than right here on The Sardine News. We aggregate news from many, trusted sources. People we actually know. And make it one of our missions to stamp out false news and sensationalism as is so often used by the mainstream media during sardine season.
And last weeks Sardine News in Video…
Definitely don’t believe what you see in the mainstream anymore (this year has been a prime example with already a totally unqualified news show calling a Port Elizabeth red tide, an East London sardine run?!?!).
Sardines 2021 Gallery
The 2021 Sardine Run in Video
Our sardine reports, spearfishing weeklies and surfing stories are also most times accompanied by video. On our fast-growing YouTube Channel available for free right here.
So you can subscribe to The Sardine News using the form above and to the right. And you can subscribe to our YouTube Channel using this link here.
To catch up on what has happened this year so far, you can watch the Sardine Run 2021 playlist, right here…
The Sardine Run 2021 Sightings Map is a brand new feature and is looking for a switched on advertiser to take the hits. Get in touch with Sean on umzimkul@gmail.com to talk business.
Welcome back to the most up-to-date sardine run 2021 reporting YouTube Channel and website – The Sardine News.
Morgans Bay
A very positive triple-up report from the Morgans Bay area, just north of East London. The trio verify each other with near-exact descriptions of the action and combining of elements. And location. Kilometres of sardines, with thousands of birds, and the usual plethora of marine wildlife in chase. Humpback whales were also reported along with hundreds of dolphins and gamefish.
Perfect timing
Actually, this is perfect timing, for these first shoals to make their appearance. It bodes well for a good season and we need not even get too excited about these first shoals. Except that, they often have the gamefish with them. Winter gamefish hang around for the sardine run, patrolling up and down the coastline in search of the huge free meal. So they are often at the first few smaller and stretched out shoals. And they seem to out-pace the sharks. Who more lazily stick to the massive shoals that are still coming.
Aloes
Baby buds forming up for the sardine run 2021 season.
The aloes on the KZN coastline and further south, are the most reliable indicator, as far as we can tell from the years. And they have hardly started budding. Although they are getting some colour. And when the “red hot pokers bloom”, that’s when the sardines will arrive en-masse.
So, make sure you do not miss out on any sardine action and whereabouts, by subscribing to this channel.
Although we do feature surfing and diving along with fishing, we realise that this time of the year is all about the sardines.
And so we commit to being extra diligent as we gather and report on the sardine run this 2021.
Master Watermen
The Morgans Bay reports actually came from the Master Watermen spearfishing website which you follow too. To take advantage of the spearos underwater perspectives.
KZN diver discovers ‘cleaning station’ of highly-endangered devil ray at Aliwal Shoal
Devil Ray: Aliwal Shoal, one of two Marine Protected Areas (MPA) on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, is a world-renowned dive site attracting adventurers looking to swim with hundreds of sharks of varying species including black tips and ragged tooth sharks. And while it certainly ticks the boxes on all shark divers’ bucket lists, Aliwal Shoal has recently been found to home a number of the highly endangered shortfin devil rays which use the area as a cleaning station.
Michelle Carpenter, a local KZN diver and PhD student specializing in sharks and rays, discovered the Aliwal Shoal devil ray cleaning station back in 2020: “At the time, I didn’t realise how many rays lived in and frequented Aliwal Shoal. But I’ve been working on my project for over a year now, which means visiting the site almost daily for field work, and have been overwhelmed by the incredible ray diversity as well as the numbers being encountered. In fact, Aliwal Shoal has even more diversity in terms of rays than it does sharks.”
Rays, which are the dorsal-ventrally compressed, or flattened sharks, do not always draw as much attention as sharks. However, both sharks and rays actually both belong to the cartilaginous group of marine fishes called ‘elasmobranchs’.
Carpenter said this site is fortunate to be home to one of the world’s first discovered devil ray cleaning station, following another such discovery at Bazaruto Archepelago: Cleaning stations are important areas on a reef where a marine animal – such as a ray, turtle, shark, or fish – will visit to have parasites removed or wounds cleaned by cleaner fish. These sites function as resting areas and mating grounds for hundreds of marine life species.”
Aliwal Shoal, which can be located just 4 kilometres off the coast of Umkomaas, is one of two MPAs found in this region. The other is Protea Banks, which can be found 7.5 kilometres off Shelly Beach. MPAs have been established to keep marine ecosystems working harmoniously while protecting the ocean life under the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act. These two are home to a variety of big marine life such as sharks, whales, turtles, rays, king fish, yellow fin tuna and barracuda.
Commenting on shortfin devil rays in particular, Carpenter said it was a massive discovery to find them in such large numbers, considering they are classified as ‘highly endangered’ along the southern African coast.
“Some places, such as Tofo in Mozambique, have experienced a decline in sightings of these rays by more than 90% the past few years,” she explained. “This makes the discovery at Aliwal Shoal that much more profound. But it’s not only the numbers of devil rays, it’s also the diversity of ray species that is so astounding.”
She said there are common sightings of spotted eagle rays, honeycomb whip rays, reticulate whip rays, leopard whip rays, blue stingrays, bluespotted stingrays, Jenkins stingray, round ribbontail rays, and even the critically endangered whitespotted wedgefish. Although not seen as regularly, divers can also see giant manta rays, reef manta rays, longhorn devil rays, the enigmatic and under-studied bull rays, as well as the extremely rare bowmouth guitarfish.
Carpenter’s ocean-based research sees her using scuba diving equipment as well as freediving as a way to gather the necessary information while getting close enough to the marine life. She said that, while scuba diving has been the most useful tool in achieving research tasks such as deploying remote cameras to collect footage of cleaning rays, and performing transects of the reef communities including coral and fish, she prefers freediving for close ray interactions.
“Sharks and rays have two additional senses that we do not possess,” explained Carpenter. “These are the lateral line which detect water displacement, and ampullae of Lorenzini which detect electric pulses. I find that the bubbles generated while scuba diving often scares the ray before it approaches you. In various freediving encounters I have been immersed by a school of 50 devil rays, hugged by a giant manta ray, nearly sandwiched by two barrel rolling giant manta rays, and been face-to-face with spotted eagle rays. It is truly magical.”
Her freediving fieldwork is supported by Freediving South Africa, which is owned by her partner, Kent Taylor. Taylor has been freediving, spearfishing, and skippering boats his entire life, and launched Freediving South Africa, the first fully eco-dive business on the KZN South Coast in 2019. Michelle and Kent are based primarily in Umkomaas although they frequently travel to Sodwana Bay and other South African locations to teach freediving and perform research.
Michelle is supported by several scuba diving operators, sponsors, and non-profit organisations, without which, this sort of research would not be possible. These include the University of Cape Town, Freediving South Africa, Agulhas House Dive Centre, Marine Megafauna Foundation, ScubaCo Dive Centre, Blue Ocean Dive Resort, and the Rufford Foundation.
For more information follow @sol.fins.photography_ on Instagram or email Michelle on crpmic001.
Devil ray swim by with the talented Michelle carpenter behind the lens.
Honeycomb whip ray by Javi Parejo.
Round ribbontail ray by Michelle Carpenter.
Short fin devil ray fly by with Michelle Carpenter behind the lens
Spotted eagle ray and round ribbontail ray by Michelle Carpenter.
Spotted Eagle ray by Michelle Carpenter.
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