The Sardine Run

One of nature's most grand annual extravaganzas, a vivid drama epic in scale and 'made-for-spectators' to rival any listed Wonder of the World.
Countless millions of tiny silver fish heading north from spawning and feeding grounds off the Eastern Cape moving up the east coast of South Africa past Durban in the north, pursued by the most well-equipped and voracious predators on earth - both ocean-going and airborne. These relentless hunters occasionally drive splinters of the giant sardine shoal ashore, where equally frenzied human 'extras' gleefully join the cast of this wide-screen blockbuster. The showing runs for several weeks, at its most intense along the southern KwaZulu Natal coast, then gradually lessening as the constantly harvested shoal continues its lemming-like migration northwards. Despite this insistent hunting attention, the last surviving sardines have usually managed a 200-kilometre journey - beyond the golden beaches of Durban - before final oblivion in the 'smiling' mouths of our aptly named Dolphin Coast's star attractions.

Sardines, or more correctly the pilchard Sardinops sagax, are a small and primitive fish that do not as a rule find the Zulu Kingdom's warm stretch of Indian Ocean to their liking. Incalculably vast shoals prefer to enact their short, yet virulent life cycles near the surface of the Cape Province's cold to icy cold waters. Each year around June or July, however, when the sea temperature drops by a mere four or five Degrees Celsius from its average midsummer high of mid twenty Degrees, sardines off the Eastern Cape mistakenly sense a potential expansion of habitat to their north. This is the widely accepted theory in scientific circles. Earlier postulations of instinctive spawning- or feeding-migrations have been ruled out on account of KwaZulu-Natal's relative lack of plankton and tiny crustaceans - the staple diet of young and juvenile sardines. A narrow continental shelf thereafter ensures that the shoal proceeds close to shore - and in mortal danger throughout its journey.  The sardines' running of the gauntlet begins in this narrow underwater strait, an 'exodus' with only one possible outcome, and dubbed with the now familiar moniker of the Zulu Kingdom's unique 'Sardine Run'.

By the time these hapless sardines reach Port Edward in southern KwaZulu Natal, they've already garnered a mass of unwanted attention and are in a state of utter frenzy. This agitation increases as more and more waiting predators join the free-for-all. The view from land  is of an exploding, silver-purple hued ocean surface being attacked from the air by thousands-strong squadrons of Cape gannets and cormorants, and from all remaining sides by a massed variety of denizens of the deep.


To see sharks thrashing about on the surface just beyond the waves guarantees an unusual and thrilling experience, free from danger. When a shoal splinter is driven inshore, however, sharks may well follow into uncharacteristically shallow water.  In addition to their beauty and variety, the Beaches of our Zulu Kingdom are world renowned for their safety from shark attacks, thanks both to a highly effective network of shark nets and the Natal Sharks Board that pioneered and maintains them. This one-of-a-kind service organisation is a world-renowned authority and consultant to many countries. The Natal Sharks Board is at the forefront of global conservation trends, including the reversal of superstition-driven policies that dictated killing off as many sharks as possible. For this reason, and to prevent the unwanted deaths of dolphins and seals, the National Sharks Board lifts shark nets for the duration of a Sardine Run. The temporary inconvenience to bathers, surfers and the like are outweighed by the positive, longer-term benefits of this policy.

In bygone days it was word-of-mouth that sent hundreds of bonus-seekers to where sardines were close enough inshore for the pleasure of seine-netters and folk brandishing the most unlikely collection of receptacles imaginable. However, today the Natal Shark's Board provides regular updates and situation reports, ensuring optimum crowds at 'hot-spots' as offices and factory floors experience a sudden rush of workers with all manner of urgent needs to take the rest of the day off!

For less 'hands-on' yet equally thrilling memories of our Sardine Run, we have devised some highly appealing new options. With heart in your mouth, marvel at a seabird's eye-view of the entire panorama by strapping yourself into a microlight flying machine - alongside a qualified pilot, naturally - for the flip of a lifetime. Or take to the briny aboard a charter boat for that 'up close and personal' encounter with the dolphins, sharks, seals, whales and whatever unexpected participant might be joining in the fray.

While the awesome Sardine Run can also be witnessed along the entire South Coast and beyond Durban, most of the action takes place in view of the southernmost stretch known as the Hibiscus Coast. Vantage points with the best reputation for success are - from south to north - Splash Rocks in Port Edward, the near- adjacent Leisure Bay, the walkway between Kidds Beach and Glenmore Beach, the head at Southbroom, the pier at Margate, Lilliecrona Boulevard between Margate and Uvongo, Saint's Walk between Uvongo and St Michaels-on-Sea, Shelly Beach, the lighthouse at Port Shepstone, Hibberdene lookout, Ifafa Beach, Rocky Bay, Scottburgh and Warner Beach.  
Please contact us for more info on how to experience this amazing event!