South African Sardine Run: Big Animals in Congregation

The sardine run along the east coast of South Africa is a spectacular and well-known phenomenon, but the seeds of our understanding are only now beginning to emerge.

We now know that this is one of the largest marine events on the planet, involving many species of fish, sharks, marine mammals and birds. Fishermen have been making the most of this annual winter event for decades and gradually, the media and tourism potential of this occurrence is being developed.

More recently international film crews have converged on the Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) and Eastern cape coastline to capture images for worldwide broadcast, and specialist operators have created excursions to allow the more adventurous to witness this exciting coastal exhibition of frenzied marine interaction.

The sardine run is much more than the simply numerous glistening shoals of sardines moving up the coast, for which the local tourism industry has coined the phrase