ANXIOUS sardine watchers have been advised to sit tight and wait for the expected shoal to hit the Durban coast. So said the Natal Sharks Board Sardine hotline on Tuesday morning after the expected shoals failed to arrive at the weekend.
According to the Sharks Board, not much was happening early this week, with some reports from Ramsgate and Port St Johns but nothing close to Durban shores. The sharks net remain down in anticipation of the sardine run which has become a phenomenon along the KZN coastline for many years.
Last week, Mike Anderson-Reade, head of operations for the KZN Sharks Board, confirmed that netting of sardines took place on Wednesday morning at Umgababa and Illovo beaches on the upper south coast.
Five nets of about 80 crates of sardines each have successfully been caught by the seine netters and a monitoring flight undertaken by the Sharks Board earlier on Wednesday morning revealed many small pockets of sardines mostly in the mid break area of the surf zone between Umbogintwini and Ifafa beach.
“Unfortunately there is still a fairly strong 1,5m swell along the coast which has resulted in turbid inshore visibility making it quite difficult for the seine netters to spot and access the fish. The prospects for sardines to arrive off the Durban beachfront area during the next few days appear to be good however movement of these fish is always very difficult to forecast,” he said.
He said there was still an abundance of sardine associated activity south of KZN extending from Mkhambati through to Waterfall Bluff in the Eastern Cape and there was a good possibility that some of these shoals would move onto the lower south coast of KZN during the week.
“All shark safety gear south of Durban remains out of the water at this time and the Sharks Board will continue to monitor the sardine movements and respond accordingly. After two years of no sardine run it looks very promising that we will have a better run this year,” said Anderson-Reade.
Daily updates on the sardine movements are available on the KZN Sharks Board hotline on 083 913 9495.
