The Sardine Run South Africa
The Sardine Run
“The sardine shoals were usually sighted off the Bashee River mouth in the Port St Johns area around the 8th or 9th of June, and would reach Durban by about the 25th of the month.”
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Join Oceans Africa for a Sardine Run Tour in 2026
Oceans Africa is a specialist dive tour and charter company with over 25 years local industy experience. For the 2026 Sardine Run we will be hosting our own groups in the Wildcoast, so make sure to contact us directly if you’d like to join us on a tour.
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What is the Sardine Run?
Is the Sardine Run a migration?
The sardine run is a seasonal movement of fish and predators along the Eastern Cape coastline to the South Coast of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.
“The largest bio-mass migration on the planet”
For many years this description was appended to the sardine run, however the term “migration” is complex in the context of the sardine run, as it doesn’t perfectly align with the traditional definition.
While the run is an annual event involving a massive movement of sardines, it’s estimated that only 2% of the Agulhas Bank stock is involved and is not clearly linked to feeding or breeding. This is further confused by research that identifies a separate stock that spawns near Park Rynie on the KZN South Coast.
Most experts seem to agree that the sardine run as simply a movement of fish that are driven or pulled east by wind, seasonal currents and upwellings – a small percentage of the Atlantic stock that is not technically migrating, as there is no clear benefit to their re-location. In fact it might be more accurate to see this event in terms of being an ecological trap, where water temperature and predators result in disaster for the majority of sardines involved. If there is a migratory aspect to the run it’s that of the many of the predators that move to the area for this mass feeding event.
Currents and Sea Temperatures
What drives the Sardine Run?
The graphic (inset) shows a satellite image from 29th June 2017. Fluctuating warm water gyres in the mighty Agulhas current, pull cooler water along the coastline and bring pockets of sardines up from the Agulhas Bank spawning grounds.
The satellite image shows water of about 20 degrees Celsius from East London to Port St Johns. Reports from this time were of scattered bait-ball activity in all of those areas.
These near-shore counter currents arise from up-welling along the coast between Port Alfred to Port St. Johns. Further movement past Waterfall Bluff near Mboyti is believed to depend on a break-away eddy from the Agulhas current, allowing further NE movement of sardines along the Durban South Coast – The Waterfall Bluff gateway hypothesis.
By the time the sardines reach the South Coast of KwaZulu Natal, shoals of differing sizes tend to come through in pulses, that are further concentrated by predators; dolphins ,birds, sharks and whales following the shoals.
Migration or not and semantics aside, there are many complex factors that contribute to a good or bad sardine run year.
A History of Fish and People
What is the History of the Sardine Run?
The first sardine runs were traditionally associated with the Natal South Coast from Port Edward to Durban, when locals and fishermen eagerly awaited the seasonal arrival of sardines and associated game fish in June and July.
The earliest reference we can find to the event in Durban is from 1853 when the Natal Mercury reported:
“… on Tuesday the 2nd August 1853, a shoal of mackerel chased by sharks and other large fish, took refuge close to shore. This stranding of fish has not been remembered to have occurred beforehand.”
In the 1930’s and 40’s, Indian, purse seine fishermen made a living off the sardine, makerel, herring and shad (Pomatomus Saltatrix) catches. Operating from the shore with wooden boats between Durban and Port Edward there were three companies with almost forty boats at Durban’s Vetch’s Pier alone. Unable to compete with better equipped netters that arrived in later years, their fishing operations became confined to the Durban area, where only one boat remained by 1982.
Pioneers of Rock and Surf
Early runs and "Sardine Fever"
At about the same time, sport fishing was becoming popular and local pioneers of rock and surf techniques used hand-made tackle; cane rods and flax lines to target the gamefish and sharks associated with the sardine catches.
Sometimes the sardine shoals would beach as the sheer number of fish trapped against the shore would deplete all the available oxygen and suffocating fish would be left stranded, unable to escape the falling tide. This free bounty from the sea would see people from all walks of life, rushing into the surf with nets, buckets, shopping baskets, even shirts and skirts, in a frenzy that became known as “sardine fever”.
Another early mention of the run can be found in The Blue Meridian by Peter Matthiessen. During their expedition to film the great white shark in 1969 they heard news that “…Durban’s beaches had been closed, due to the shark hoards that were pursuing great shoals of mackerel close inshore; the nets off the beaches were catching as many as 72 sharks in a single day. In Natal it was the southern winter, the water was colder, and among the species in the nets was the great white shark.”
Currents of Change
How has the Sardine Run Changed?
In his personal history ‘A Fisherman’s Tale’ published in 1986, Joe Mara discusses the run at length:
“For many years the sardine runs along the Natal Coast followed a set pattern. The shoals were usually sighted off the Bashee River mouth in the Port St Johns area around the 8th or 9th of June, and given good weather would reach Durban by about the 25th of the month.”
“But from 1936 the pattern changed. The shoals began arriving later and good runs were more unpredictable…“
“Then, over the last 10 years or so [1975 -85] the runs have got progressively worse, which has resulted in the popular the belief that a good run is dependent on the temperature of the water which, it is claimed, should be in the region of 19 degrees Celcius”
Mara then goes on to express concerns over the shark nets and cites the absence of predator fish and sharks, to drive the shoals inshore as a probable cause for the decline of the South Coast sardine run.
Of sharks, mice and men!
The sharks and shark nets!
Tim Wallett, in his book Shark Attack and the treatment of victims in Southern African Waters discusses the terrible impact of the shark nets during the run:
“Every year the intensity of the run varies, as does the distance which the shoals travel from shore. If sardine shoals move along the coast more than one kilometer offshore few, if any, sharks are caught in the nets. When shoals swim through netted areas hundreds of sharks are meshed.”
“…the most impressive run undoubtedly took place in 1971. Over 1000 sharks were removed from the nets in ten days. Many nets could not be located for several weeks and the number of sharks which decomposed in them is unknown.”
Thankfully the Natal Sharks Board is now removing the nets during the run. However they continue to use lethal methods to “protect” beaches for the rest of the year. Gill nets and drum lines are the weapons of choice, despite the non-lethal protection options that are now currently available.
South Africa’s dirty little conservation shame, The Natal Sharks Board are a government subsidised organisation that continues to operate with impunity as a shark fishery, much to the dismay of many concerned South Africans. For more information on the devastating role the Natal Sharks Board plays, watch The Last Shark Documentary below!
Diving the Sardine Run
Pioneers of Diving The Sardine Run
Diving the Sardine Run first gained international attention in the late 1990s when Emmy Award-winning underwater filmmaker Charles Maxwell shot footage that was included in the BBC’s Blue Planet series. Maxwells filiming helped publicize the event and fuel interest from divers worldwide.
His footage revealed the scale and complexity of the migration, where sardines, dolphins, sharks, whales, and seabirds move together in a finely balanced marine system.
At the time, the idea of entering the water during such a feeding event was considered by many as madness and misconceptions about sharks were widespread. Public (and even the dive industry) perception of sharks was still shaped by fear and fiction rather than science. Those first divers and filmmakers challenged that mindset directly. They entered the water to understanding and documented behaviour that showed sharks and predators responding with precision and restraint, not mindless aggression.
Full credit must be given to the early pioneers like Walter Barnardis and Mark Addison. By hosting filmakers and photographers they opened up a whole new aspect to the diving industry in South Africa that is now a core offering for many businesses.
Their work challenged long-held fears and helped shift the way people understood the dynamics of the sardine run. What was once thought to be a chaotic feeding frenzy, became recognised as a natural rhythm of the ocean. The spirit of those first pioneer divers still defines the experience of diving the Sardine Run today.
Recent Sardine Runs
The sardine run from then til now!
Joe Mara remembers 1954 as… “One of the earliest and best runs ever recorded in Natal waters ” “On Monday, June 2nd, 1954, word reached Durban that an enormous shoal of sardines had passed Port Edward and was expected at Port Shepstone the following day. This unusually early run was attributed to the light winds which had prevailed for several weeks, and also to the large numbers of sharks and gamefish which had driven the shoal close inshore.”
The last major run to reach the South Coast in recent years was in 2002, with some huge shoals making their appearance off Isipingo, Scottburgh and Warner Beach and a few shoals reaching Durban by the 21st of June.
It was the shear magnitude of the shoals and spectacular scenes from this year that inspired Hibiscus Coast Tourism to go all-out and market the event in 2003. “The annual run is unique and as a market, virtually untapped in South Africa,” said Robbie Naidoo, a spokesman for Tourism KZN.
Since then the netting on the South Coast has been sporadic to say the least, although some catches were reported in 2005, 2015 and 2017. 2018 and 2019 saw some of the best catches in recent years and this has led many to believe that the sardine run may be returning to the South Coast. Indeed this trend seems to be holding true with with improved sardine runs over the last few years .
Both the 2024 and 2025 runs saw early movements of fish up the coast, with reports of huge volumes of fish passing the Wildcoast towards the end of May and some huge pilot shoals arriving on the Durban South Coast in during the first week of June. We have high hopes for the coming years.
There are many theories for the decline of the sardine run on the South Coast; the shoals passing offshore, changes in the currents, illegal fishing, over-fishing, loss of predators and climate change are all possible factors.
If you visit the South Coast in June and July you may still get lucky and witness some shoals being netted, but if you’re serious about experiencing the sardine run for yourself you must look further south and spend time on a boat!
Best Sardine Run Location
Where's best location for the Sardine Run?
So the joke goes: “If you want to experience the sardine run – you’ll be doing all the running!”
Many dive charter companies now make their own migration to the Eastern Cape to set up temporary bases on the Wildcoast and take people out in search of sardine related action.
Expeditions are run from as far south as Port Elizabeth, up to Mbotyi, just north of Port St Johns and Port Edward on the Durban South Coast
Rather than doing all the running yourselves, our advice is to choose your location based on your available dates, and wait.
Most sardine run tours operate from remote coastal areas of rural South Africa. That’s part of what makes the experience special, but it also means travel and logistics require careful planning.
Some packages include transfers. Others don’t. Depending on the operator and location, you may need to allow up to seven hours by road from the nearest airport. So if you’re adding the sardine run to a broader South African itinerary, allow at least a full day on either side for transfers.
You have to put in the time and effort to maximise your chances of finding good sardine action. Most sardine run dive packages include at least 5 days on the water, where you’ll spend between 6 and 8 hrs at sea. Think of it a safari at sea where each day you never know what to expect. Some days can be slow while other days can only be described as mind-blowing.
Best time for the Sardine Run
When's the best time of year for the Sardine Run?
This is probably the thousand dollar question! As a natural phenomenon relying on complex interrelation of currents, weather and animals, the run can be very hard to predict.
There was a popular tradition on the Durban south coast that the sardines would arrive in time for the Durban July – the national horse race held on the first weekend of July each year. This would suggest that if you’re looking for action further south you should be looking primarily at dates in June.
As a general rule the action moves up from the south, so if your dates are early – May into June – look to Port Elizabeth and East London. From June to July look at Coffee Bay, Port St Johns and Mboyti.
Although late runs are possible we usually find there is not much action in the second half of July. The fish and predators may be in the area but activity is slow and often there is a sense that all the predators are lethargic and well fed.
Once again the best time is the time spent on the water, so spend as much time there as you can !
Action on the Sardine Run
What to expect from the Sardine Run?
Spend six hours a day at sea anywhere in South Africa and you should experience something spectacular, but the waters off the Wildcoast during the winter months are teeming with life, so just get out there and expect the unexpected!
The dives during your sardine run tour are totally dependent on the nature of activity on the day. The predators associated with the sardine run should all be in the area waiting for the shoals to arrive. Some days you may be in and out the water 20 times on snorkel or scuba, other days you may find stable activity, on quiet days you may want to explore the local reefs and wrecks.
Whales of the Sardine Run
What whales can we see on the Sardine Run?
Bryde’s whales are the species most associated with the sardine run, sleek and fast they are able to keep up with the other predators and will lunge feed through shoals of sardines with amazing precision.
The winter months also herald the arrival of thousands of humpback whales to our coastal waters. Although unrelated to the sardine run, the whales use the same currents to travel north to their calving areas and the sheer numbers passing each day is spectacular in itself.
Please note that a permit is required to approach whales closer than 300m. Any whale watching done during the sardine run must obey local regulations.
It’s important to choose an operator whose skippers and guides have a deep understanding of the animals they work with. This includes an awareness of wildlife behaviour and spatial boundaries, supported by the experience to recognise subtle signs of stress or disturbance. Knowing when to hold position and when to leave alone entirely. Responsible wildlife encounters depend on this awareness. Animal welfare and low-impact observation should always be the priority.
Sardine Run Baitballs
The dynamics of a baitball!
The action on the sardine run is often on the move, as predators chase the shoals of fish in an attempt to round up pockets into a bait ball.
The lateral lines of fish are highly sensitive to the slightest change in water pressure, ensuring that when one fish in a shoal moves the rest react. The effect can be mesmerizing. A glittering mass of fish that appears to react as a single fluid organism responding to it’s environment; pulsing, scattering and reforming, a living entity in itself.
Once a pocket of fish is isolated and surrounded by predators the action may stabilise as a bait-ball is formed. Dolphins circling the shoal, can be observed blowing bubbles to concentrate the fish further and divers will often hear a “battle cry “ as a dolphin attack is launched.
Sharks may come up into the shoal from below or seemingly appear from nowhere, while cape gannets dive in from above like missiles whenever the shoal is pushed close to the surface – the low frequency thud as they hit the water, alerting even more predators to area.
Gradually the fish become lethargic as oxygen in the surrounding water is depleted and the predators are able to pick off every last sardine at their leisure, leaving only the glitter of falling scales as evidence of their existence.
More about Sardines...
The natural & un-natural history of a South African sardine
A vital commercial catch globally the sardine (Sardinops Sajax) is the most studied pelagic fish on the planet.
Sardines are filter feeders, and may be seen swimming en-mass with their mouths open as they strain food from the water with their finely-meshed gill-rakers. Sardines feed on both phytoplankton and zooplankton forming an important link in the marine food web, by transferring the energy provided by plankton to larger predatory fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.
In South African waters, the majority of sardines spawn during the southern summer months on the Agulhas Bank – the wide and relatively shallow continental shelf off the most Southern tip of South Africa. The majority of sardine eggs and larvae are then transported by currents up the west coast as far as Namibia, while a smaller percentage moves east along the southern Cape coast and into Eastern Cape waters. Juvenile sardines then aggregate into dense shoals and slowly make their way back to the spawning grounds where they reach sexual maturity at two years.
Female sardines may spawn repeatedly, releasing up to 27,500 eggs per spawning event. Sardines can live upto 5 years and reach a size of 25 cm. However 3 years and 20cm would be the average expectancy.
As South Africa’s largest commercial fishery in terms of landed mass, some 200 000 tons are currently caught annually, of which less than 10 % are caught in the Eastern Cape and only a few 100 tons in KwaZulu Natal. The fishery employs thousands of people and is the economic backbone of many coastal communities.
By 1970 the west coast sardine fishery was in a state of collapse from over-fishing. Careful management of the fishery during the 1980s had shown some recovery by the 90’s, however the reduced pelagic fish stocks on the west coast have forced many predators (and the fishery) to move south and east in pursuit of their catch.
The Penguin colonies that appeared in Simonstown and Betty’s bay in the 80’s attest to this southern movement of sardine and predators. While penguin breeding pairs currently stand at less than 10 % of their former population, the fishing industry faced its own challenges as shifting fish stocks and increasing fuel costs forced several companies to relocate their plants to Mossel Bay and focus on the eastern sardine stocks.
A final say for the 2025 Run
What was this years hype about?
The 2025 season once again proved how dynamic this event is, with shoals appearing further north than expected and predator activity remaining high even during quieter sardine pulses
Late-season action brought baitballs of mackerel, lunge-feeding Bryde’s whales, and the constant presence of large duskies and bronze whalers in the depths, reminding us that the Sardine Run remains a completely wild and unpredictable event.
When everything comes together the sardine run is one of the most spectacular wildlife events: Watch in awe as a thousand birds rain down from the sky into an ocean whipped into whitecaps by charging dolphins. Sharks emerge from the depths to keep the shoals at the surface, while Bryde’s whales lunge through the scattering fish. In these moments of intense presence, time stands still, while you witness this amazing play of life and death unfolding.
If you are looking for a real African wildlife experience or adventure diving at its best, the Sardine Run is unlikely to be disappoint!
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Join the Sardine Run 2026 with Oceans Africa!
Based on direct feedback from guides, dive operators, and guests during the 2025 Sardine Run, we’re already preparing for what lies ahead in 2026 with some exciting new packages on offer to our clients.
Oceans Africa works closely with a range of vetted operators across key locations. We understand which packages deliver the right balance of access, comfort, and reliability. Our goal as an agent and operator is to help you build a well-informed itinerary that matches your expectations and maximises your chances of success. No markups. No overpromises. Just honest advice from professionals who’ve done this before.
Spaces are limited during peak activity windows, so we recommend starting the conversation early. Whether you’re a diver, photographer, filmmaker, or simply chasing one of nature’s most extraordinary events, we’re here to make sure you’re in the right place at the right time.
Let us help you plan your 2026 Sardine Run.
Sardine Run Tours 2026
Choose your Sardine Run Tour Package option
Oceans Africa will be guiding our own groups on select dates for next years sardine run. Select a sardine run tour from the options below and request rates and availability for dates or send us an e-mail with your dates and we can find a sardine run package for you.
Sardine Run Mbotyi
Sardine Run Mbotyi 2026 Sardine Run Mboyti, Wildcoast – 8 night Package WhatsApp Now! First week starts: 29th June 2026 8 x nights superior accommodation. 7 x sea days From ZAR 67 995 per person sharing. Mbotyi at the heart of the Wildcoast is regarded by many to be the best Sardine Run location. This
Sardine Run East London
Sardine Run East London 2025 SPECIAL OFFER – Sardine Run East London Package WhatsApp Now! IM SORRY THIS PACKAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE – Dates and rates under review for 2026 We are excited to offer you this flexible sardine run package from East London. Oceans Africa will be running daily charters from East London during
Sardine Run Coffee Bay
Sardine Run Coffee Bay / Mdumbi Sardine Run, Wildcoast – 7 night package WhatsApp Now! First week starts: 13th June 2025 7 x nights accommodation. 6 x sea days From ZAR 45 500 per person sharing. Mdumbi near Coffee Bay is at the heart of the Wildcoast and is one of our favorite Sardine Run
Sardine Run Cinsta
Sardine Run Cinsta Sardine Run Cinsta, East London – 7 night Package WhatsApp Now! First week starts: 17th May 2026 7 x nights superior accommodation. 6 x sea days. From ZAR 49 500 per person sharing. Cintsa near East London can be regarded as the gateway to the Wildcoast . With close proximity to the
This text has been compiled from various different sources and personal observations. It is intended to serve as a popular guide only. While every effort has been made to keep the information accurate and updated, it should not be seen in any way as a scientific text or reference. Historic pictures are from ‘A Fisherman’s Tale’ by Joe Mara, published in 1986.
Copyright: Oceans Africa 2025