OFF TRACK | SHOALS MOVE SOULS

They stare, nod their heads, cry, and come back three times in a month.

This is the behaviour of nature-loving tourists who have come to witness the global spectacle of “The Greatest Shoal on Earth” — the Sardine Run.

“One lady became so choked up with emotion at seeing so many dolphins that she came up to me and thanked me profusely for providing her with the opportunity,” said John Barry, skipper and co-owner of Southern Cruises, the only regular tour cruise operator in the Buffalo City river port.

This year, the annual mass arrival of the South African sardine Sardinops sagax was as spectacular as it was unusual.

It has been one of the most intense marine migration shows ever seen in Barry’s 31 years of nature cruises.

He says birds have stretched out for an 18km feeding line, and a “curious” juvenile humpback whale even swam into the Buffalo City harbour right up to the Steve Biko bridge before heading out to sea.

“The rule of thumb is that they arrive here when the Comrades is run and in Durban for the Durban July on the first Saturday of that month.

“Yet this year, they arrived a month earlier — the Comrades was on Saturday, and in Durban last week more than a month before the horse race.”

This had been his best year ever since he started.

“The weather had definitely changed. We had the mildest summer season and have not yet had those big winter storms.”

(Winter’s first major storm is arriving now, with a vengeance, as you read this story on Tuesday, gales, storm surf, heavy rain and deep snow are being unleashed by a cut off low mid-latitude cyclone forecast to hit its peak in the Eastern Cape and SA.

Barry said that this year there were also more than the SA “sards” in the mix; there were red-eye herrings Etrumeus whiteheadi, Cape halfbeaks (Hyporhamphus capensis), and even the Cape horse mackerel (Trachurus capensis).

Already in place in East London three weeks ago for their gigantic open-mouthed scooping rush into the shoals were the toothy Brydes whales (Balaenoptera brydei).

Bronze whalers, also known as copper sharks (Carcharhinus brachyurous), were seen hopping and jumping and there were seals from Malgas and Bird islands, and some game fish.

Anglers were catching. “Everyone’s happy,”  Barry said.

On one trip, a “super pod” of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) had not stopped passing the boat for three hours.

These are deep ocean mammals which live in small groups but congregate in massive pods for food and sex.

But it was the birds which hogged the skyline, up to an estimated 100,000, mostly Cape gannets but also cormorants and many other different species.

The gannets this year included more juveniles, which are almost black, but there was still the same amount of damage done to the hunters which dive into the water at measured speeds of up to 108km/h.

The wrong angle would cancel out the role of a cushioning air sack in their heads and gannets were seen injured and dying on the water.

Some are taken to the East London Aquarium (see adjoining story) for rehabilitation and release.

But some of the most interesting things to see during the marine phenomenon was the reaction of the tourists on the boats.

Most were nature lovers from the SA interior and around the world, especially Europe. He had no American tourists this year.

Many were parents interested in education who were rendered curious by the excitement of their schoolgoing children. 

“One little Xhosa-speaking girl of 10 knew all the animals we were seeing. Her parents said she only watched nature shows like Nat Geo.”

“One family got so into it they took the tour three times this month.”

“People just can’t seem to get enough. They can’t believe what they are seeing.

“They get so awestruck, staring and nodding their heads and saying it was the most wonderful thing they had ever seen.”

Trips cost R450 per adult, half for children and there were two or three rides a day, with dawn trips being the most popular.

Call Barry on 073-257-2319

Daily Dispatch