South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board confirms first sardines sightings! [update]

update (12 July 2019): There has been a fair amount of sardine related activity between Pennington and Amanzimtoti over the past few days.
There is still loads of sardine related activity between Port St Johns to Water Fall Bluff but there are no actual solid shoals of sardines to be seen.
At the moment the bathing remains banned between Isipingo and Umtentwini, due to the sardine related activity which keeps showing up in these areas.

update (04 July 2019): According to an update of the previous press release by the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, bathing between Isipingo and Port Edward is banned due to the sardine related activity in these areas.

update (04 July 2019): According to a press release by the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, there has been an increase in sardine related activity between Bazely Beach and Amanzimtoti over the past few days. At the moment bathing between Isipingo and Scottburgh is banned due to the sardine related activity in these areas.

update (21 June 2019): According to a press release by the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, there has been an increase in sardine related activity between Manteku and Mbotyi over the past few days. There has also been a definite increase in action in the Luphuthana Mouth area, which could be the fish which was prevoously at Mbotyi. There is also Common Dolphin activity off Waterfall Bluff which is always a good sign.

The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board has received confirmed reports of sardine related activity between the Nqabara River Mouth and the Dwesa Marine Reserve as well as of activity in the Rame Heads area which is 26 km South of Port St Johns. According to a press release on Facebook, no further sightings of much activity north of this have been recorded but hopefully the sardine activity will increase between Port St Johns and Port Edward after the cold front passes later this evening (13 June 2019). We'll keep you posted!


The famous "sardine run" occurs each year in June or July along the KwaZulu-Natal coast when large shoals of sardines move in a band up the coast. These shoals take advantage of cool water on the continental shelf of South Africa's east coast that occurs seasonally as a narrow band between the coast and the warm, southward flowing Agulhas current.