South Africa: Sardine Run

Every year around June, South Africa offers an incredible display in its waters: The Sardine Run. If you are lucky, a huge shoal of sardines will form a bait ball which then is pierced by frenzied predators such as sharks, whales, dolphins, seals, gannets, petrels, cormorants and penguins. That is the first prize in the hunt of the sardines. But even if the sardines do not arrive, the sea is full of expectant predators which alone is a spectacle of a lifetime. Huge whales, thousands of dolphins and sharks, rafts of seals and penguins, and hundreds of thousands of seabirds join the traveling feast.

This sometimes elusive phenomenon requires that you are in the right place at the right time to catch the show. Dive the Big 5 has been after the sardines for a decade and knows where and when to launch the boat. The enterprise is aided by a spotter plane. The only given is that water temperature must drop below 66°F – the rest is luck for even the best guys! The shoals can appear anywhere between Port Elizabeth to Durban, anytime between late May to early July. Each year the dates are different, and you should book your spot early in advance.