Information
Beach festival-The Sardine Run is much more than numerous glistening shoals of sardines moving up the coast.
It involves and affects many marine animals and can be witnessed from the shore, the sea or the air, and from above or below the clean waters of the Indian Ocean.
Great White Sharks, Copper Sharks, Common Dolphins, and Cape Gannets are four key predators that pursue the shoals northwards along the east coast of South Africa.
The shoals can get up to 20-30km long and the feeding displays that result are spectacular.
Sharks and dolphins round up the sardines into huge “bait balls”, only to be consumed by the predators.
White clouds of Cape Gannets plunge into the water like jet fighter planes, pods of common dolphins join together to herd the sardines through “super pods” several thousand strong, and hundreds of sharks join in pursuit.
The South Coast offers several vantage points along its magnificent 120km long coastline for you to take full advantage of the experience from the comfort of a deck-chair.
Marine charters operate out of Port Edward, Ramsgate and Shelly Beach and Margate Airport boasts an active flying club and charters that follow the run to your hearts desire.
You can also dive with the sardines (including the reefs, wrecks and sharks) at Aliwal Shoal, Protea Banks and Rocky Bay as they migrate northwards along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline.
An added bonus is that Ragged Tooth sharks congregate to mate during this period and you are sure to have exquisite dives and also experience our huge brindle bass, moray eels, rays, turtles, schools of pelagic fish, whales, dolphins, and many more marine species.
The South Coast has two world-class dive sites and none other than Jacques Cousteau himself rated Aliwal Shoal as one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.
The Natal Sharks Board have reliably estimated that over 20,000 dolphins follow the annual sardine run and marine biologists have gathered much information through exploration of the oceans that they have now put paid to many of the myths that previously surrounded these creatures of the deep.
During the Sardine Run, you will find the presence of Humpback Whales and Southern Right Whales. This is merely coincidental as they have not been observed feeding on sardines.
These whales migrate north to give birth and they mate off the KwaZulu-Natal coast. Whales during their migration, they may travel up to 8,000 km in what is probably the longest mammal migration known to man.