Durban - Durban fishermen are counting the days until they net sardines again, but for the past four days there have been no sardines in Durban despite nettings and sightings on the South Coast and in the Eastern Cape.
Rishad Khan, from the local fishing group Grunter Gully Fishing Tribe, said they had been out the entire weekend waiting to net the much-anticipated sardines.
“For the last four days it has been quiet. There are fish but they are very far in, about 800m in, and it’s very difficult to net there as it is too deep. I would say the fish were not sardines but mixed bait fish such as mackerel, red-eyes and other bait fish,” he said.
“In about a week’s time we expect some big shoals.
He warned that some people had gone to the Eastern Cape, bought sardines, and brought them to Durban to sell to the public.
“They come around screaming 'sardines', and people get excited, as it is the season and they buy the fish and they are sold at R50 a dozen,” said Khan.
At the weekend some fishing fanatics approached these sardine sellers in Chatsworth, asking them where the fish were from.
“They told me they had just netted in Umgababa. Which was laughable because we spent the entire day at the same beach and didn’t net. Everybody wants to make money, but they need to be honest. We heard reports of them selling at Isipingo beach, Merebank and Park Rynie,” he said.
Greg Thompson, the operations manager at the Sharks Board, said last Wednesday they had been granted a permit to do a sardine observation flight into the Eastern Cape.
“We are hoping to get additional clearances to continue these patrols. This weekend most of the sardine or bait-fish activity has been between Scottburgh and Pennington,” he said.
Thompson said the majority of these fish had been fairly deep and out of netting distance.