The sardines are coming — and so too are the rural schoolchildren.
Southern Cross Cruises’ tour boat skipper said the number of scholars taking rides to the open ocean and around the city port was doubling every year.
Last year, a startling 27,000 children from the far reaches of the province took the educational cruise — primary school children were shown the historic port, and high school youths went out to the open ocean.
Most had never stepped on a boat, let alone headed out onto open water.
“When the kids get to Latimer’s Landing and see the boats, there is excitement.
“Then we put the life jackets on them and there is a bit of trepidation but once they are seated, I encourage everyone to sing the songs they know from school, and then they start to relax.
“And when we sense they are starting to have fun, I give the throttle a little boost and then the enjoyment really comes up.”
From the sea, the children head to the aquarium and EL Museum.
Barry said small bait balls of red eyes (Etrumeus sadina) started appearing in early April, “and that is always a good sign for the sardine run”.
“Two weeks ago, we had small pilot shoals of juvenile sardines coming through.
“The sea state is good — strong westerlies push in the cold, inshore ‘Natal pulse’ they need.
“We are also seeing many young birds, such as fledgling gannets in their thousands. They have hatched early and are in good condition.
“Bryde’s whales are full up. They gather where the food is.
“Historically, all of this is too early — the sardine run is normally towards the end of May.”
Siani Zahn, manager of the city’s aquarium, said: “We have seen how weather, currents, and the ocean are changing.
“Over the last 20 years, where we were very temperate, we seem to be becoming more of a hot and cold and less of a mid-line coastline.
“Some of our cold water species are showing up and some of our warmer species are showing up.
“We have seen West Coast rock lobster and basket stars, which we never used to see.
“So there are changes which we are not used to seeing.”
She said while sea surges happened about every fifth year, damage was becoming greater.
“The sea has come up further. We are seeing more dramatic damage than we did 20 years ago.”
In his spearfishing report to the 73rd AGM of the Border Undersea Club, Nils von Delft said many dives took place in “amazing conditions” and warm water.
He said many tropical species were encountered — dorado (mahi-mahi), wahoos (Acanthocybium solandri) and an extremely rare 31.5kg sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) taken on February 5 by diver Paul Toich.
It felt as if the fish were “spawning sooner”.
“We had unusually warm waters, which brought in the game fish” he said.
These fish come in on the Agulhas current, being fed by the Mozambique channel, which has warmed by more than 2°C, according to research.
The great gathering of the “Greatest Shoal on Earth” will be watched by divers from around the world.
Buccaneers Lodge & Backpackers co-owner Sean Price said the bookings were in and the divers would be coming when the run started.
But it was videographer and SA Deaf Olympic swimmer Mark Roach who had the closest seat on Thursday at 2.30pm when he and top paddler Tyler Ridge filmed a whale suddenly rising to feed on a baitball metres away from them.
“What was supposed to be a quick paddle at Nahoon Reef suddenly turned into a sardine chase as we saw a cloud of gannets waterfalling into the sea 1km out from the reef.
“There seems to be some patches of activity forging ahead of the full run, which should hit in the next month or so.
“Tyler and I made our way there as quickly as possible as the frenzy can vanish as quickly as it appears.
“We were lucky to have half an hour of euphoria as we got to witness the start of the greatest shoal on earth.” — Daily Disapatch
