Sardines moving closer to Durban
AFTER making a surprise appearance in Scottburgh, the sardines have moved up the coast landing at Winklespruit, eManzimtoti and Isipingo yesterday.
The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board’s head of operations, Mike Anderson-Reade, said that eight nets had been landed, and net sizes had varied from small to medium with the largest net producing 300 crates of the fish.
“The netters are selling the fish at R900 a crate, with each crate holding between 28 to 30 dozen sardines, depending on the size of the fish. Netting could possibly continue in these areas.”
He said observations from their flight yesterday morning revealed scattered pockets of sardines between Isipingo and Umgababa.
“These pockets are accompanied by a small number of Cape gannets. Apart from a number of Cape gannets seen off the Pennington and Sezela areas, no further sardine activity was noted on the southern KZN coast.”
A strong south-westerly wind was forecast late last night.
“Shark safety gear has been removed between, and including, Scottburgh and Anstey’s Beach on the Bluff. All the other shark safety gear along the coast remains in place and beaches are open for bathing.
“This may change as the run develops, and more gear may be removed over the coming days,” he said.
On Wednesday, 110 crates worth of sardines were netted in one net.
“Twenty-five crates of mackerel were also netted. Reports suggest that numerous shoals of bait fish have been seen between Scottburgh and Mtwalume,” he said at the time.
He said it was very difficult to predict the movement of the fish, especially when they moved in from deep offshore.