Categories: Report

Updated: Indian Ocean Today 22 August 2024

State of the Indian Ocean 22 August 2024 by Adam Kamdar

The Indian Ocean Today 22 August 2024

The Indian Ocean Today 22 August 2024: According to Adam, the Indian Ocean is alive with life…

Bear KZN sea report Mucked up inshore 21-08-2024 (youtube.com)

Baby Whale Tantrum at Rocky Bay

Baby Whale Tantrum on the Rocky Bay Backline #humpback #whales #sardinerun2024

In this fun clip we see a baby whale interacting with it’s mother in the shallows just behind the Rocky Bay backline yesterday. Enjoy the antics…

As humans, we are fundamentally flawed in many ways. And the fear of sharks (being eaten), caps off these flaws. Since hardly a dozen people worldwide get killed by sharks each year?!

We compiled this list of nasties which should add perspective:

Mosquitoes are on more than a million per year
Snakes have a death toll of 100 000
Rabies kills almost 60 000 per year, 15 000 or more from dog bites, many from monkey bites
Freshwater snails 20 000
Tsetse Fly 10 000
Roundworms 2700
Tapeworms 2000
Crocodiles are on a healthy 1000
Hippos take out 700
Elephants are on 500
Lions only 250
Cape Buffalo account for 200

Sharks are not even near these gangsters. Sure there are unreported attacks which we do know of. But for the most part, mostly all the more dangerous sharks have been netted by the KZNSB. Or like here in Mozambique, they all got eaten. And sold. Fin by fin.

Very few sharks are left anywhere along the backline reefs along the eastern seaboard of southern Africa. North of the Transkei, that is to say. There are still plenty sets of angry teeth down that away. And out deep off KZN the population seems quite healthy too.

So maybe this little baby humpback up here in KZN and just recently born, is having a tantrum because just a hundred metres away lie the lethal shark nets. Indiscriminately, silently killing by suffocation – dolphins, whales, turtles…the whole lot are impeded and often killed by the shark nets.

Let’s simply remove them from most beaches, until the whales leave? By November the whales and their newborns are mostly long gone. The east winds would have wound down by then. And the tourists are arriving. Chuck the nets back in because it’s great marketing to the hoards who believe in sharks so devoutly.

Take them out again in May or so, when the sardines and whales start their massive show up all over again?

BTW, there are so many alternative solutions to this massive problem of being bitten by a shark. Exclusion nets. Repellent devices. Detection devices. Sonar tags.

Check this out…all these great whites have tags in them and you can see exactly where they are at any time.

There are ten sonar-tagged and tracked great whites between Durban and Tofo today.

OCEARCH Shark Tracker is the link to the online app. It has got to be one of the most fun apps on the entire internet! They even got turtles and all sorts of extras. And it’s worldwide.

And another whale and calf clip to enjoy…from a short while back…great footage!

Mozambique

With the sardines finally running out of steam, The Sardine News changes gear to bring you fishing, surfing and diving news and views – from all around Southern Africa.

In this next insert, we get to surf Tofinho. Way up in the Mozambique version of the Indian Ocean – this fickle wave finally put on a small show. Small being the operative word. But some decent sets did come through and not many of them went unridden. There was quite a crowd of foreigners. Crusher and Dusty led the charge as usual…

Tiny Tofinho

Mdumbi in the Transkei

Then we swoop down into the Kei where CB takes us through the visuals she captured for us a short while ago…

Blustery Mdumbi

There might be a few more reports today still. But we are 5 already! Brucifire is threatening a report, he is going to the beach now.

Jeffreys Bay

Brucifire checks in as the SW howls through. Painting the Indian Ocean smooth and mean at the same time. It’s not too small, but hopefully, Brucifire will get down and grab a few frames for us this afternoon.

Brucifire checks in from Jeffreys

Sardine Maps

Having intel to make the right decisions can save you hours and hours of frivolous sardine hunting. We have taken great care to log the activity of each sardine run since 2021. These records are available for anyone to look at.

If you study the maps year to year, you will see that right now we are only just in the middle of good sardine conditions. And that in previous years catches were made right into the summer months.

Sardine Map 2024

Sardine Map 2023

Sardine Map 2021