Sardines can swim Backwards! 16 June 2024 Sardine News by Kevin in Qora

#sardine #run #2024 #sardines #kzn #south #africa #report

Sardines can swim Backwards!

Yip! Let Kevin explain rather...

How’s it everyone? This is Kevin at Qora Mouth, just north of Mazepa Bay in the Southern Transkei. Well, yeah, it’s it is what it is. It’s another quiet day of sardine run activity. I actually have a group of 10 chaps down here fishing. They just arrived this morning. They’re from Port Shepstone. They brought me a whole bucket full of fresh sards to eat, which I’m very thankful for.

And yeah, they’ve also given me some insights into what’s going on. And they sang that over yesterday and the day before. It looks like those shoals that are sitting around, you know, those areas in the south coast, they’re actually starting to move backwards. So this is a very clear indicator of what’s going on, and you’ll see by the, the graph up above, as we discussed yesterday, we were the first to point this out the water temperature is warming up considerably up towards Durban.


So when I. I phoned the Durban Lifeguards yesterday to get an accurate reading. They told me 20, 22. 5 or 22. 7, the temperature. It went up to way over 23 degrees later in the afternoon. So this is exactly what’s happening guys. This is you know, these, these sardines come from cold water. The only reason the sardine run happens is because there’s a cold water plume that comes up the East Coast and they travel within that.

So when they reach KZN and especially when they reach around Durban, they start hitting the warm water. And it’s very, very bad for them. They can’t survive in water that’s 23 degrees Celsius. So they have two options. Go backwards and try and find cold water or head out into the deep where if they dive deeper off the continental shelf.


They’ll find water back that’s in the 19 to 20 degree range And then they will be caught in the current and they’ll move back to the Agulhas Bank So this is exactly what’s happening now guys These sardines have reached extremely warm water And yeah, they’re they’re hung up south of Durban and All we can hope for is that the water cools down considerably over the next few days.

Today, down here in Qora Mouth, there is a northeasterly wind blowing, and let’s hope that’s also happening up in KZN, because we know the northeaster brings cooler water, and the southwesterly wind brings warmer water. So Let’s hope this temperature of the water drops. We need to get it back down to around 20 degrees, 21 maybe.


Yeah, they can probably be all right then, but these sardines favour water in the 16 to 17-degree range. So yeah, that’s where it’s at guys. Let’s just hope that the conditions change and keep these sardines on the coast. Anyway, that’s all I got for now. We haven’t heard too much of netting going on today, but I’m very looking forward to this bucket of sardines I just received from my guests and I’m going to be frying up some fish masala today.

And yeah, I’ve heard all about how good these sards are to chow. These ones were caught yesterday in a cast net. So yeah, life is good, LG. I get to share in the spoils. Anyway, that’s all I got for now, guys. Let’s keep it real. Keep those beaches tidy. If you can pack it in, take it out as well. Only leave your footprints.

That’s all I got. Cheers.

Affiliated YouTube Channels
   / @brucifire   – highly entertaining surf reporting

   / @thesardinenews   – neva miss a single sardine

   / @mydotackletalk   – highly technical sport fishing

   / @surflaunchingsouthernafrica   – getting out there safely

   / @waterwoes   – complain here

Affiliated websites
https://umzimkulu.co.za – self-catering right on the Umzimkulu River
https://umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za – sardine run coming up
https://thesardine.co.za – never miss a single sardine
https://masterwatermen.co.za – news from deep down
https://brucifire.co.za – surf and conditions reporting
https://fishbazaruto.com – your dreams are out there
https://mydofishinglures.co.za – technical sport fishing