Pockets of sardines were spotted heading towards the KwaZulu-Natal south coast on Thursday‚ prompting the KZN Sharks Board to remove shark nets in the region.
The board’s head of operations Mike Anderson-Reade said it had undertaken a monitoring flight after receiving “credible reports of sardine and associated predator activity”‚ in the Waterfall Bluff region off the Eastern Cape coast‚ about 45km away from the south coast.
“The KZN Sharks Board commenced with the removal of shark safety gear on the lower south coast today and the public will be informed of the bathing status of the beaches once the exercise has been completed‚” said Anderson-Reade.
“The board will continue to monitor the activity and manage bathing at protected beaches in consultation with the coastal municipalities.”
He said small pockets of sardines had already been spotted off Ramsgate‚ Mtwalume and Umtentweni‚ along the south coast.
“These small shoals were easily visible just behind backline with a few also seen in the mid break. There were however no signs of any predator activity with them. A mixture of a few thousand common and bottlenose dolphins were seen very close inshore...” he added.
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