Africa News Summary : News Headlines : Discussion Forums

Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - Web posted at 7:33:04 am GMT

SEZELA BEACH, South Africa, June 26 (AFP) - It looks like a menacing oil-slick, but the huge dark patch on the water is an approaching shoal of sardines.

On the beach, hundreds of men, women and children armed with nets, buckets and shovels shriek in anticipation.

A dinghy encircles the shoal with a gigantic net as local youngsters employed by commercial netters haul the days largest catch out of the waters at Sezela Beach, on the south coast of South Africa's subtropical KwaZulu-Natal province.

"The most exciting part is getting into the water and gathering the sardines out by yourself," says Kalay Rangasamy, who has come to cash in on the annual migration of millions of the little silver fish along the coastline.

Schools of porpoises dance on the breakers, performing aerial flips around the shoal as they gorge themselves, and anglers cast their lines expectantly, hoping to land big game fish that pursue the sardines.

As the shoal hits the shore, ripples of excitement mingle with the squawks of seagulls and soon the shoreline is covered by a wriggling mat of gleaming fish.

Now comes the mad scramble to grab as many as possible with buckets, cooler-boxes, crates and plastic shopping bags. Even pockets bulge with the squirming fish. Those without sufficient containers dump handfuls of fish into holes dug on the beach.

"It is just amazing to follow that blackish patch as it approaches and then to see the little fish beach, literally in their millions," says Ann Turrell, 63, from Durban, a coastal city some 70 kilometres (40 miles) to the north.

Sheldon Dudley, a marine biologist with the Natal Sharks Board says the annual migration of sardines -- a cool water species -- is triggered in the southern winter by cooler waters along the KwaZulu-Natal coast.

That allows sardines to extend their habitat from the cold Benguela upwelling, farther south off the Eastern Cape province coast.

As the sardine shoals appear in the surf zone they are usually netted out of the water, but Dudley said the sardines sometimes beach themselves.

"The shoals are probably pursued by the bigger game fish or they could be caught in the turbulent waters of the surf zone," he said.

"Alternately, it is probable that when the sardines are too densely packed in the shallow coastal waters, they use up all the oxygen and this oxygen depletion probably drives them ashore."

Loading crates of the fish onto his pick-up truck, Morgan Naidoo, of the sprawling township of Chatsworth, south of Durban, stresses that the annual sardine run is more than just mystique and fun.

"It is an opportunity for individuals like myself to supplement our income by selling the sardines to the public," says Naidoo, a fruit and vegetable vendor.

"More importantly, it allows even the poorest communities to buy a nutritious, high-protein meal at a very affordable fee," he adds.

Sardine prices, on average, range between two rand (20 US cents) and 10 rand (one dollar) a dozen.

Commercial beach netters, who mainly supply the canning industry, are allowed a total catch of 260,000 tonnes a year while off-shore catches, in a good year, can amount to 700 tonnes.

Shan Perumal, unemployed for the past five years, relies on fishing to put food on the family table. "Besides the sardines providing meals for my family, I also freeze a large amount so that I have bait to sustain my fishing activities all year long," he says.

Alan Cele, 21, and his friends waste no time in cooking their sardines over a fire right on the beach.

"We wouldnt have had anything for lunch were it not for these delicious fish. I also plan to take some home for my family and neighbours because most of us struggle to provide food," he said.

"This is like a Christmas feast and the best part of it all is that God is feeding us for free." - Nampa-AFP