South Africa Sardine Run

[SerAndrew]

Hi!

So, as some of you may already know, I'm a diver. I have always practiced it sporadically whenever I had the chance, and had only made specific dive trips to Islas Canarias, in Spain.

However, some months ago I decided to take this hobby to the next level and embark in what could become one of the most amazing experiences in my life. And it was.

Sardine Run is the biggest bio-mass migration on Earth. From May to August, the Wild Coast of South Africa (east coast) witnesses the migration of hundreds of millions of sardines (Sardinops Sagax) and other small bite fish like mackerels that use the Agulhas current to go North to Mozambique from the Cape where they were born.

This is known by predators like big pelagic game fish, sharks, dolphins, gannets and Bryde whales as they are waiting for them for a fest. So the main goal of this trip was to observe this natural event: sardines adopting a bite-ball formation to defend themselves from the dolphins and sharks attacking from below, the gannets shooting from above and the whales getting a mouthfull of fishes to end the show.

Also, not being part of the run, a lot of humpback whales populate these waters in this time of the year as they go north to warmer zones to raise their babies.

We woke up every morning with the sun, ride a semi-rigid boat for 6-8h every day looking for the action and jump off and on when something interesting was spotted. We had the aid of a small plane that looked for the best spots every day.

The following video captures our 6 day morning experience*. I won't make any spoiler by saying that, despite we weren't able to watch a big bait-ball because of the low visibility conditions (due to some recent massive floods; rivers where carrying dirty water to the sea) the experience was amazing and, as you will see (and hear) from minute 2:30, a dream came true. Also, not everything that we saw is in the video, recording is not always easy and things happen very quickly.

Video was recorded with GoPro, which is nice for underwater medium to close planes but not so good to capture the birds. Also, the underwater animals were (even!) closer than they look, Superview mode makes them look smaller and further away.

*In the afternoons we had walks in the beach and in the nearby river and a lot of waterfowl could be seen, as well as a pair of african fish eagles that lived near the hotel and that we could hear and see from time to time. Even the claw-prints on the beach, sourrounded by shells of their recent food.

[AnimalToyForum]

Thrilling! What a magical experience it must have been. Thanks for sharing here @SerAndrew

The humpback is my favourite whale, I'm fascinated by their long flippers. In one of your shots you can see the tips of the left and right flipper pretty much touch each other so the limbs have a massive range of motion. I know they sometimes use them to direct fish into their mouths!

[SerAndrew]

Thrilling! What a magical experience it must have been. Thanks for sharing here @SerAndrew

The humpback is my favourite whale, I'm fascinated by their long flippers. In one of your shots you can see the tips of the left and right flipper pretty much touch each other so the limbs have a massive range of motion. I know they sometimes use them to direct fish into their mouths!

Thanks animaltoyforum
They are amazing indeed. The way they clearly interacted with us, how it turned around to approach us, put in that vertical position to stare at us... It was magical.
We also saw some mothers teaching calves how to jump, with the whole body out of the water...