10 June 2024 Where do Sardines even Come From?: Sometimes in life, you got to make important decisions. And it ain’t no different for sardines!
In this 10 June 2024 Sardine News update, we have an overload of entertaining and informative video. To everyone who sent clips in, especially the dude in the flying machine, a huge THANK you from all of us who follow things here at The Sardine News. Your contributions are giving the public a 3D look at what goes on at the beach during these fun times.
Enjoy the video…
Monday 10 June 2024
Will go down as one of the most beautiful and memorable days in sardine run history. It all just unfolded so fast. The ocean here in KZN recovers quick, but tghis was lightning speed. Clean water hugging the coastline making for the most picturesque sardine scenes ever.
A handful of nets went in. And some were huge! 400 Crates type thing!
Where do sardines come from?
But the main story in this report is Kevin brushing on where these sardines and actually live. And what choices they faced, in order to get all this way from home.
It is fascinating stuff. And is complemented by animations and video as Kevin explains the life cycle of Sardinops Sagax, our beloved sardines.
Please don’t forget to like and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel(s).
SARDINES on the KZN South Coast: these sardines have me on the edge of my seat!
Yesterday rumours were circulating already. And today many sporadic sightings have been reported. From lower KZN South Coast waters.
Advice is only to wait and see rather. Sardine Fever is mean stuff and you can easily find yourself chasing sardines from carpark to carpark in vain.
The sightings today have all been from far off. They actually could even be other baitfish like mackerel or red-eye sardines. So many guys out there are after clicks that you really need to question the validity of each post. However, with so many reported sightings on social, let’s just go with it!
First Shoal
These are then the sardines that Kevin in Qora spotted for us ten long days ago. It was a substantial shoal that was sighted. Big enough to get through the hordes of predators lying in ambush along the way. Who were already quite satiated with those early pilot shoals. That went through even before this first main shoal.
How far this first main shoal gets is gonna be interesting. But with the absolutely ideal water and weather conditions ahead of us, more big shoals are sure to follow along smartly.
The KZN South Coast would be the perfect place to be if you want to see sardines this year. The rivers have been swept clean by the recent floods induced by that foul cut-off low storm system recently. Good for something!
Hotspots
Sardines love Port Edward. And it is so easy. Beyond Port Edward the main road turns inland and the beaches are a long drive each time. Port Edward has grand-stand seats to the sardine run. With a well laid out promenade with ample parking and viewing sites. The sardines often beach at Port Edward. And most years this is where the first nets will be going in.
But that ain’t no guarantee! Sardines do make up their own minds and sometimes the first shoals will skip Port Edward and bounce over to beautiful Glenmore Beach. Trafalgar. All the way up to Margate, there are so many lush spots to gain a vantage from.
Margate has had it’s pipes cleaned a number of times lately and hopefully with this recent flush, the ANC or the MK or whoever, can do a proper job of the stormwater systems this time. Sardines do not like dirty water. But at the moment Margate is clean and it would be safe to visit there. For sardines, and for people.
Forecast
North of this Lower South Coast stretch is going to be a tough call. Perhaps a few of those early little pilot shoals survived out deep. And they might pop in to the coast and catch us all by surprise.
You can get a real feel of the sardine run and how it unfolds each year at the following links to the relevant Sardine Sightings Maps.
Please consider heading on over to our YouTube Channel where we break The Sardine News first.
Sardines are Surfers
The hectic ocean swell from the southeast has backed right off. And looks to be turning to a south swell. And as we all know – Sardines are Surfers. And they will be capitalising on any pulse they can. Sardines on the KZN South Coast 7 June 2024.
Sardine Results – what now? 3 June 2024 Report by Kevin in Qora
Sardine Results – what now? 3 June 2024 Report by Kevin in Qora: Kevin in Qora lays out our prospects of sardine run action for this week, the first week of June 2024.
Over to Kevin…
“Morning chaps, this is Kevin reporting from Qora Mouth, just north of Mazepa Bay on Southern Transkei. Well, that was certainly an interesting couple of days as this front moved through and was dominated by a cut off low which kept it sitting right over the coast. Very unseasonable rain, but we got about 120 millimeters down here at the coast, which we’re very thankful for because as far as the sardines and how this is going to affect them I think we have to look at a couple of factors.
The first one obviously being dirty water. The River, which is our river, has a very limited catchment area. It only stretches about 70 to 80 kilometers inland. So that water comes through to the estuaries extremely fast, and normally within one or two tide cycles it’s flushed out already, and it dissipates in the southerly current.
But we do have two major rivers in the Transkei, the southern Transkei. Which are the Kei River and the Mbashi River. Both of those have extremely large catchment areas. The Mbashi River starts somewhere way up in Lesotho near Tifindels and the Kei River goes equally far inland. So it’s going to take a couple days for those catchment areas to filter into the river and then for that water to actually reach the coast.
So I’m going to give it let’s say 72 hours. And then we’ll have a much better idea of what the water quality is going to be like in the inshore region. Second factor that’s definitely affects the movement of the sardines is the swell and the swell direction. We’ve had a sustained wind of 18 meters a second, which translates to about 70 kilometers an hour.
And it was a straight southeaster. Which means it came straight in off the ocean. And that’s evident today in about a 46 meter swell breaking. It’s breaking about a kilometer out to sea. And it’s definitely overridden the predominant south swell that was running. And so we’re going to have to wait for this to dissipate a little bit.
But just being a localized swell it will dissipate extremely fast and the south swell will dominate again over the next 24 to 48 hours. So that that will help the sardines to get moving again. The other factor is, that’s very important right now, is that the southeasterly swell has caused a huge upwelling of ice cold water.
There was a mist on the water this morning and I went and tested it. And it’s running at just below 14 degrees. So lovely temperature water for the sods to get moving in. So I’m going to say over the next 48 to 72 hours we should see major movement of the sardines depending on what the water color looks like once the larger catchment areas kind of send their water to the coast.
So anyway, Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the big shoals that were moving through prior to this front get up and go again. Cool, that’s all I got for now. I’ll keep you updated as things change. Cheers.”
Thank you Kevin, we are all on the edge of our seats about these damn sardines! And the ruddy weather!When’s it gonna stop?!
Kevin in Qora Flabbergasted by HUGE Shoal of Sardines TODAY 30 May 2024
Kevin in Qora Flabbergasted by HUGE Shoal of Sardines TODAY 30 May 2024: listen to this very exciting voice note from Kevin in Qora as he reports being flabbergasted by the size of the shoal of sardines out front of his cottage in Qora today.
Words like motherload and early season show the severity of Kevin’s sardine fever-laden report. Makes me want to jump in a vehicle and head south right now!
? “Morning, everyone. This is Kevin from Qora Mouth. Just north of Mazepa Bay in the southern Transkei. Well, we’ve had those pilot shoals that came through over the last couple weeks. Which was a very good indicator that we’re going to have a wonderful sardine run again then we had a bit of a hold-up where sardines washed up in Haga Haga and we heard of a bigger shoal that was off of Sinsa And the water had warmed up a bit.
So that’s why I think that that shoal got held up and Now, today, there are literally thousands of birds out in front of me. I’m also seeing lots of predator activity whales breaching and I wouldn’t say it’s a super pod of dolphins, but plenty, plenty dolphin activity. But I’m talking thousands of birds stretched over probably a two-kilometer stretch lots of separate diving action So, what I’m going to say now is that this is a much larger shoal.
This just isn’t a little pilot shoal fractured off. This is something big. And being end of May, this is extremely unusual, but This is Big Chaps coming through here now, unfortunately my iPhone camera doesn’t do much justice to action that’s a couple kilometers out same as taking a full moon photo and all you see is a little yellow dot in the sky, but The evidence is here right in front of me.
It’s a very, very big shawl movement. I mean, this is on par with like the mother load that comes once a year and it’s way too early for the mother load unless it is the mother load. I don’t know. But Yeah, all I can say is I’m actually sitting here flabbergasted by the amount of activity and feeding going on.
I mean, I can’t even reiterate it more. Thousands and thousands of gannets big rafts everywhere where they’ve gorged themselves full and just others taking to the wing and diving. It’s just, you know, 20, 30 peeling off at a time, boiling the water. So yeah, this is good. This is good. Let’s see how fast they move.
This is the kind of shoal that definitely will reach KZN. So, yeah, keep your fingers crossed. Port St. John’s is the next port of call. There’s not much between here and there. There is Navaja where there’s some cottages. But it’s generally a quiet area, so the next major sighting and confirmation of this shoal is going to be Port St.
John’s Coffee Bay area, and that depending on how fast they move, let’s say we give them five to six days to get to Port St. John’s. But this is a big one. Cool buzz. Over and out. I’ll keep you updated. Cheers.”
Port St Johns
Is the next major port-of-call is gonna be Port St Johns. However, our sardine spies in Mdumbi might be up for some excitement this afternoon and in the morning.
The fishing has been rocking in Port St Johns the last few days.
Shoal sized kob on paddletail near Port St Johns
KZN
Fishing in KZN water and other nearby spots however has been dismal. When the sardines shoal northwards from the deep south like this, it causes chaos with the local fish populations. They also follow the food around the place.
Even the shad have been really slow up in KZN.
The exception being the couta up on the north coast at the moment. They are also here for the sardines but don’t dig the cold water down south at all. Port Edward is roughly their southern limit. And at the limits of the couta’s range here like this, these are the big fish. Only the really big couta make it this far south.
All if these fish were caught down that way, over the years…during the sardine season.
Louis Posthumous and team have been using Mydos for decades. Port Edward.Another huge couta catch down on the KZN South CoastAnd a beautiful healthy looking 28kg crocodile couta by Mark SnymanMark Snyman in Port EdwardKing Mackerel – 8 of, plus a hefty GTKarine van Rensburg of MYDO gives us some perspective standing next to Andre Laubschers magnificent 36.9kg ‘Couta taken off Port Edward
A Foreign Fishing Fleet Gathers Before Sardine Run 2024
A Foreign Fishing Fleet Gathers before Sardine Run 2024: it’s not all good news here at The Sardine News. An armada of foreign and unidentifiable fishing boats has been gathering just outside our internationally recognised waters. And slap bang in the middle of the sardine migratory path.
Hundreds of them.
AIS Identification
These vessels are all however still sporting their AIS transponders (the law) as they try to secret about in keen anticipation of robbing the natural resource from right out under our noses.
Some of the boats are identifiable on the AIS system. But about 95 % are labelled grey. Which means we don’t know where they come from. And it’s too far to send a boat to go and take a look. Hundreds of Nautical Miles out.
Please take a close look at the situation by following the link below. It will open in a new window. You can look about and become familiar with the extent of the problems both the sardines and we are facing.
The plate below is zoomed right in over the area where about half the mystery fleet are milling about. In some kind of pattern or formation. We can only hope that they are not catching all the sardines already!
Aerial Surveillance
This is the only way we will ever document the fishing as evidence and move to do something about it. If the Chinese or any other foreign fishing fleet is damaging our economy and tourism industry by robbing us of this resource, then we best do something about it. The days of being complacent and relying on the government ended in the mid-90s. The ANC has no will to achieve anything except maximise profits through Luthuli House and its business puppets.
For all we know right now, these particular powers that – be could be fully aware of this fleet gathering at the moment. And they could be sanctioning, and profiting from it. We will not know unless we find out ourselves.
We then need to lobby until we find the right person. And then help that person to do the job. This is the only way it works these days. Any assistance would be appreciated! Please send information to Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com if you have something to contribute to the mission. There used to be sardine runs all around the UK. Ireland. Scotland. There are none there now.
My gut feel is that because it is all happening outside our internationally recognised waters, it’s open season on the poor sards. Unless we can use international law to stop the depletion of this resource. By arguing that the value of the sardines to our tourism industry, far outweighs the value that these foreign ships will get by killing the whole lot. Any potential PHDs interested? Probably not.
Dreams are free. And so are the nightmares in between…
“NEVA buy SARDS in a CAN! You are supporting the demise of your very own sardine run if you do this. Tuna too. Don’t do it. ” – Xonalanga (Editor)
