A close encounter at the Greatest Shoal on Earth

Close encounter with whale, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

We booked a trip to witness the annual sardine run in South Africa six months prior. It was by far one of our pricier excursions but we were too curious to pass on the opportunity to witness one of nature’s great events. To summarize, the sardine run occurs along the cape of Africa when seasons change and sardines migrate north to warmer waters. This mass migration of sardines makes for an annual feeding frenzy for the Indian ocean’s marine life including copper sharks, dolphins, seals, Brudas whales, and gannots (sea birds) to name those we witnessed.

We booked a flight from Capetown into Durban and with our Chevrolet Spark in tow, we made the five hour drive through Transkei to Port St. John, a small tribal village that relies on the two week long sardine run for their annual tourism income. The drive itself was through African townships and the famous Transkei Big Five. Not to be confused with the African Big five (lion, leopard, water buffalo, rhinoceros, and elephant), the Transkei Big Five is less glamorous: dead goats, dogs, cows, donkeys, and chickens. We saw plenty of them all splattered the along the pot-holed roads as we made our way over endless hill and hills before finally seeing the ocean.

Our skipper Carl and dive master (and cook) Allen were typical South African dudes, friendly guys, always drinking and joking around. After dinner, we booked to bed early to get ready for a big day out to see. Supposedly the last 5 days were storm-ridden and our first day would be the first day that anyone would be out in the ocean.

At 6AM we climbed into our damp wetsuits and drove down to the riverbed where we would load our dive boat and launch to sea. Cold and miserable were an understatement. We sat in the boat freezing all the while being sprayed by the cold ocean and feeling nauseous from the rocky sea. Carl circled around for a few minutes in the riverbed before launching to sea. Apparently, this is the most challenging part of the launch: to get to sea we must negotiate dangerous waves and currents that could easily flip our boat. That day we were the first of only four boats to make it out to sea. After watching Carl steer our ship past the crashing waves, we offered him a round of applause and then the hunt began.

The search begins by looking for large colonies of gannots (sea birds) who follow pods of dolphins from above. These gannots will take us to the action. On the way, we begin to see dolphins jumping out of the water and we know we are getting close. However, after a few hours of watching birds and dolphins and the occasional whale surface (a majestic sight in itself), no sardines yet. By this time, Jennifer was shivering with cold and I was nauseous with sea sickness; it was beginning to feel miserable.

Then all of the sudden the gannots circling the air began to kamikaze bomb straight into the water like heat-seeking missles and the water surface begins to glisten with fish and dolphins. Our skipper yells at us to get our equipment on. He pulls us straight up to the “bait ball” and we jump into the water.

A mad frenzy ensues underwater and we are there to witness everything through the lens of our dive masks. Sardines have been coraled into tight balls and trapped to the surface of water by cunning pods of dolphins who easily snatch them up with their sharp mouths. Beneath the surface we can hear the squeals of the dolphins as they communicate with each other. At the same time the gannots dive-bomb into the water to get their shares. Some unlucky divers accidentally get smacked by the gannots. Looking down: all I see are dozens of gannots swimming underwater trying to hunt down any available sardines before re-surfacing for air, who said birds can’t swim. Ten feet below, I spot a copper shark and look up at my dive buddy Harvey. I grab him and yell “watch out, shark below!”. He replies “no shit, there are dozens of them down there.” I look down and realize that indeed we are swimming with sharks. Fortunately for us, only sardines are on the menu today. We keep our fist clenched so our fingers don’t get confused. The frenzy continues for over 15 minutes, dissipating when the sardines escape and reappearing when the dolphins coral another ball up. Then all the sudden from deep below, a whale appears and swims right below my fins. All I remember our the deep blue gills and the humongous tail of this 15 meter long mammal. This three second encounter literally took my breath away and had me happy for the day. Seeing such a large mammal up close was simply beautiful.

The bbq and beer was plentiful that night as we celebrated the “hottest action” our skipper, Carl, had seen in 10 years of doing this.


The next morning was colder but I armed myself with four motion-sickness tablets and Jennifer borrowed a big coat. The waves were even bigger today and our skipper ordered the scuba gear off the boat to save weight and make our boat quicker. We spent 20 minutes circling on the riverbed this time and we feared that we wouldn’t be able to make it out to sea. Thankfully our skipper found a gap and in a few minutes were cruising again, searching for dolphins and gannots.

About fifteen minutes searching for sardines, the gannots began falling from the sky again and so we scurried into the water. This time, the dolphins were going crazy and the sharks were getting closer to us, snapping blindly for sardines. Pods of five dolphins swimming around us, furiously taking in as many sardines as they can. Our team was elated by all the action and Jennifer said a shark swam right up to my fin. We surfaced and screamed in joy (or fear) as we were seeing even “hotter action” than the day before. I swam up to Jennifer and all of the sudden a whale barreled right in between us, knocking Jennifer on her back. I caught a bit of this encounter on video but mostly all you can see is the huge whale swimming by and hear all the “oh shits” by the divers. I think our skipper caught this close encounter I don’t know if I was scared or excited at this close encounter with the whale but looking back it was just awesome. Later on skipper said that had he known a whale would come so close, he wouldn’t have let us in the water. The rest of the day was spent witnessing more gannots, seals, and a few more dolphins. It was a short morning but unbelievable. A close encounter we will not forget!

The last two days were slow. Not much action. The sardine run only last for a few weeks each year and supposedly didn’t even happen in the last two years. Jennifer and I got so lucky to catch the two hottest days of the year so far and seeing all the action up close. Please check out our pictures, I’m sure they’ll take your breath away…

www.flickr.com/photos/ruchbum