Durban - Sardines have been netted at the Umgababa beach south of Durban on Wednesday.
Tony Moon Outar, a netter, said it was a lucky morning.
"The right timing at the right place but we had a hard time with the locals from Umgababa. Thanks Vees 1 we did a great job in a joint operation. Thanks to both our crew u guys are awesome. Jace Govender life guard skills came in handy. Thank you to the community at Umgababa who enjoyed the morning with us on the beach and 20 crates off sardines was handed out to the locals,"he said.
Outar said the sardines filled one hundred and twenty crates.
He said they were heading to Amanzimtoti where a shoal had been spotted out at sea.
Jace Govender at Umgababa beach. Video source: Facebook
Each year in June or July along the KwaZulu-Natal coast the word gets out and, within hours, crowds of frenzied human predators converge on the area to join sharks, gamefish, marine mammals and birds in a feeding orgy. It is a time of plenty for all as large shoals of sardines move in a band up the coast.
Fresh, frozen, canned, pickled or bait - whatever way you consider them, sardines (also known as pilchards) will have featured somewhere in the lives of many South Africans. Like their close relatives, the anchovies and herrings, sardines (Sardinops sagax) live out their lives in huge shoals in the surface layers of the ocean.
Although these fish are small, collectively they comprise nearly a quarter of the world's fish catch by weight, making them one of our most valuable groups of fish.
Sardines are cold-water fish and are usually associated with areas of cold ocean upwelling, where deeper, cooler, nutrient-rich water currents surge to the surface when they strike shallow coastal areas.
Jace Govender. Video by Brahmand Outar
Sardines are commonly found in enormous shoals on the west coasts of California, South America, Japan, Australia and, of course, southern Africa- additional information from KZN Sharks Board.