Diving the Sardine Run

The Sardine Run takes place along South Africa's Wild Coast. We launch from Port St. Johns and operate north and south depending on where the sardine run action is.

Each morning we meet for breakfast and we receive updates on where the action is. After a briefing on what you are likely to encounter, how to understand behaviour of the sharks, dolphin, whales, seals, game fish, gannets etc, we launch out of the river in front of the resort.

The days are ruled by nature, we follow the action watching as the dolphin work together to seperate the sardines into bait balls. The birds, dolphin, sharks, whales all enjoying a huge feast. The noise of the diving gannets, the speed of the dolphin, the sharks and the whales coming in to join in on the feast is amazing.

You will witness the action from the boat and in the water. We enter the water many times during the day, sometimes just on snorkel and other times on scuba, it really depends on how fast the action is moving as often the bubbles from scuba diving just chases the action away.

The Sardine Run action is amazing and you are often surrounded by hundreds of dolphin, sharks, diving birds, whales and more.

Whilst all this is going on, the humpback whale migration passes the same area and we are often treated to awesome breaches as hundereds of Humpback Whales travel north.

We spend most the day at sea, we launch at about 08:00 and generally we are back by about 14:30. We take lunch with us on the boat returning in the afternoon to relax, enjoy some local activities and prepare for the next days Sardine Run action.