SARDINE UPDATE: All eyes on the little silver fish
About 1000 common dolphins were spotted feeding off Hluleka, where there were scattered pockets of sardines, as well as two very large shoals with shark activity.
A second observation flight was conducted by the KZN Sharks Board to the Eastern Cape, last Thursday, May 19
From Virginia to Port Edward, all is still fairly quiet, apart from a few bottlenose dolphins and a few scattered gannets.
The water visibility is still discoloured in many areas, which does hamper spotting.
The area between Mzamba and Grosvenor was also quiet but at Lupatana there were two groups of common dolphin about 1km off shore, charging north. Each group consisted of approximately 400 dolphins.
The Waterfall Bluff area was also quiet with just a few gannets scattered in the area.
Operations manager at the KZN Sharks Board, Greg Thompson said that when they got to Mboyti, they started seeing the first signs of sardine-related activity with about 600 common dolphin spread out in small groups all the way through to Poenskop, just north of Port St Johns.
Here they came across a moderate to fresh off shore cross wind that made it extremely difficult to spot activity.
However the water visibility had started to improve just north of Port St Johns, and as they headed towards Umngazana the sardine related activity started to increase along with numerous groups of common and bottlenose dolphins.
The sardine pockets started becoming more frequent with shoals on the surface scattered from the backline right out to the deep.
Then off Rame Head they had in excess of 15 shoals of sardines all accompanied by dolphin.
The activity continued off Hluleka with scattered pockets as well as two very large shoals of sardines with shark activity.
Here there was a huge pod of about 1000 common dolphin feeding.
This activity stretched from the backline to as far as one could see off shore.
“We turned at Hole in the Wall and there was still activity for as far south as you could see. The last stretch was very active and the visibility was very good,” said Thompson.
He said these indications are all positive that the sardines are making their way up from the Eastern Cape towards KwaZulu-Natal.
There is a possibility that the predicted cold front last weekend is pretty well timed.
A cold front can often enhance the movements of the shoals and cause them to move inshore and north at a rapid pace.
However, there have been many occasions in the past when predictions and opinions have been totally incorrect.
These fish can move through in the deep or in discoloured water that is currently being experienced at the moment, out of sight of most of the predators and arrive in KZN without warning.
Then there is always the possibility that they continue moving north on the deeper line and we don’t get to see them at all.
The next flight to East London is scheduled for May 26, however this is dependent on weather conditions.
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