Durban – After two years of no sardine run, KwaZulu-Natal fishermen can brace themselves for a good catch as the sardines hit the KZN coastline.
“It looks very promising that we will have a better run this year,” said KZN Sharks Board’s Mike Anderson-Reade on Wednesday.
He said there had been a substantial increase in sardine activity on the KZN coastline over the past two days.
“Netting of sardines has taken 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,” said Anderson-Reade.
He said the selling price per crate was unknown.
Small pockets of sardines
Anderson-Reade said a monitoring flight undertaken by the Sharks Board on Wednesday revealed many small pockets of sardines mostly in the mid break area of the surf zone between Umbogintwini and Ifafa beach.
“Unfortunately there was still a fairly strong 1.5m swell along the coast which had resulted in turbid inshore visibility making it quite difficult for the seine [dragnet] 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 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 forthcoming week.
“All shark safety gear south of Durban remains out of the water and the Sharks Board will continue to monitor the sardine movements and respond accordingly,” said Anderson-Reade.
Amanda Khoza, News24
