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Sardine Run 24 might be over already?

Sardine Run 24 is over 15 June 2024 by Kevin in Qora

Sardine Run 24 might be over already?

Sardine Run 2024 might be over already? Kevin answers this question and a few more in today’s edition of The Sardine News.

How’s it everyone? This is Kevin from Qora Mouth, just north of Mazepa Bay in the southern Transkei. So yeah, it’s been a quiet day again for the third day in a row. We’ve heard of one net that came out at Pennington, a very small net, and guys are wondering what has happened to the sardines. So let’s just do a little recap of what is actually happening here.

The sardines that come off the Agulhas Bank, which is where they spend the summer months. It’s off the tip of Africa. And then wintertime, they come off the banks because they are a migratory species. And the whole biomass of the shoal moves as a shoal up the west coast of Africa towards northern Namibia, southern Angola, where they breed and they spawn.

Very nutrient-rich water. And then At the end of winter, they head out deeper and they move back to the Agulhas Bank in kind of a cycle. And the sardine run is just the splinter group that took a wrong turn off the tip of Africa and they moved up the east coast. So the sardine run is actually the splinter group that isn’t supposed to be there.

It was supposed to be part of the main shoal but because of the cold upwellings and the nutrient-rich water that’s brought up by the Benguela current, they move up the east coast of South Africa and what they do is they follow this cold plume and when they get to the KZN waters They actually are reaching extremely warm water.

I got a report today that the water on off Durban beachfront is at 22. 7 degrees Celsius, which is way too warm for these sardines to survive in. So I doubt that these shoals will reach much further than Durban, even though we have seen some minor cast netting happening off of Balito. I’m going to say that.

You know, these sardines have now reached the limit of, of the cold water plume. It’s now dissipating into the warm Gullis current. And they now are going to be starting to head out into the deeper ocean and looking for cold water. And once they find that cold water, they then get caught in the southward current and there’ll be moving back to the Agulhas Bank.

So yeah, that’s kind of where it’s at, but you know, You know, it’s not all dead yet. We have just seen some footage of possible shoal off of Port Edward coming through. I’m seeing, you know, it was just a still photo. I’m seeing some discoloration in the water, but that could also be wind. Wind sometimes plays tricks with the mind.

And people give us false reports. So I don’t see any predator activity. I’m not seeing any gannets And there are so many gannets up in that area right now of the south coast Because they’ve been feeding for the last week or so. So yeah, I’m going to take it with a pinch of salt But let’s hope for the netters sake and for the industry that there is another shoal coming through But that remains to be seen over the next day or so We will then get confirmation that that actually was a shoal of sardines coming through.

And there you are. So let’s hope for the best. Yeah, what I’m thinking is that the sardine run is basically over. That the sards have all moved out into deeper water. We’ll keep you updated if anything changes. And just keep watching Sardine News because we keep things relevant and we keep things current.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. Talk to you guys soon. Cheers.