Enter the Fray!

Every year in July, the sea is cooking in front of the South African Coastline. Hundreds of dolphins, whales, and seabirds are following the biggest animal migration route on the planet – the Sardine Run. But the real action is happening under the surface, where sharks, dolphins, whales and the snorkelers are all up for the big jackpot – the baitball of Sardines.

Joy. Fear. Curiosity. Ambition. Courage. Awe. Humbleness.

Anyone who has ever been in the middle of a baitball knows what it feels like to go through all these emotions in a matter of seconds. Emotional rollercoaster? A Baitball is like the Thunderdome - the mother of all rollercoasters. At first, you feel pure excitement and the joy of finally finding the sardine ball.

It was such a long, arduous search. In the beginning we all laughed when someone said: "You know, Sardine Run is like being in the army – 99% boredom and 1% action". But then you start to understand: "It sounded like a joke, but the guy meant it. That sentence sums it up. You spend hours out on the wild, rough ocean in a little rubber boat with no shade. No fluffy cushions, no deck chairs between dives. Just waves, one after the other, as far as you can see. And between the waves, dolphins, hundreds of dolphins, always on the run. They always seem to be moving, but you can never really tell where they are going.

“Sardine Run is like being in the army – 99% boredom and 1% action.”

But now, you are in the middle of the action

Finally, the birds shoot through the surface like bullets, paddling for their lives to get their share of the big sardine cake. And there they are too - the oceanic blacktip sharks, the silky sharks and the bronze sharks - and they are totally psyched. They swim up and down, back and forth, their gills moving frantically as they grab for the tasty treats. Even the dolphins, which just a few seconds before had separated the sardine ball from the school, forming it into a perfect circle and preparing their meal right in front of them, now back off, keeping a safe distance and waiting for their turn. "Let the fierce predators go first," they seem to think.

With all the excitement of the action, it is easy to forget what it means when the sharks are in their feeding frenzy. When they snap like this, it is the only chance for a meal for the next few months. This is the moment when fear creeps up your spine and the carousel of "what if..." thoughts begins to spin. "What if it accidentally bites me when I try to grab a sardine?" "What if it bumps into me because it hasn't seen me and then starts to defend itself?" "What if a sailfish shoots through the ball and just massacres me with its sword?" The pulse is pumping at 220, now the sound of your own shallow breathing in the snorkel is coming up - louder and louder, faster and faster.

The ambition is stronger

After all, you have a camera in your hand. And you didn't sprint all the way over here on your fins for nothing. Ultimately, you've come all the way to South Africa to return home with the best underwater pictures you've ever taken. The opportunity you have always dreamed of is here, right in front of you - all you have to do is grab it. So you take all the courage you have and move. The dolphins give you space. The sharks don't even notice the newcomer and keep flying by, left and right. Snap here. Snap there. The surface is boiling like a huge pot. You can hear the water splashing left and right. The camera's shutter moves up and down, clicking in time to your heartbeat. These must be incredible images, you think.

But then something unexpected happens, something that no one, not even in their wildest dreams, could have imagined or hoped for. A huge high-speed train emerges from the depths - from the pitch-black water beneath the sardine bait ball. It comes so fast that there is no time to react, no time to prepare, no time to swim aside, no time to beg for mercy and tell it that you are not a competitor for the little sardines. That you just wanted to take a picture and that you are going home now and leaving them all there. The giant monster runs towards the ball with its mouth wide open. It looks like it is going to swallow the whole bait ball and anything else in its way. It is a Bryde's whale, and sardines are high on its menu. The giant continues its race. If you can make it, get out of the way. But you won't, there's no time - so you slide along the soft underside of its jaw. The texture feels as if the whale had rubbed soap on its jaws before slipping out to hunt. And as quickly as it emerged from the darkness, it swallowed the sardines. Now the full dimension of this hungry giant is revealed. As the locomotive disappears into the dark water, the rest of the wagons pass by, along with the small fins on the side, the small eclipse-shaped dorsal fin on the back of the almost fourteen-metre-long body.

They Bryde's whales, pronounced 'brooders', were named after the Norwegian whale hunter Johan Bryde, are a subspecies of the rorqual whales

They are a sedentary species that get excited every year when the sardines pass through their habitat. Anyone lucky enough to see them up close has no choice but to stare in awe, to bow imaginatively and to appreciate that here, around Port St Johns, life in the sea is what we all wish it was everywhere: raw, rough, wild.

The action party comes to an end. Some of the sardines escape into the depths, following the dark cloud formed by their family members. The boat picks up the happy snorkellers, the boat greets the snorkellers, still in disbelief at such an incredible spectacle. They are given sandwiches and hot chocolate, a warm oil jacket against the cold wind, a lollipop against the seasickness. Everyone is looking forward to the lodge, warm socks after a hot shower, beer by the fire. The fire is lit for the barbecue, the so-called braai. Meat is the essence of all food in South Africa, but it also a fundamental part of the culture. It is a social gathering, the place where people tell their stories of past bait balls, of diving with great white sharks and of looking at dead whales that attracted seven great whites at once.

Here you will feel like a real adventurer, and you will never feel lonely as everyone comes with their whole family. Once a year they all bring their boats and set off, united by the love of the sea and the constant drive to be part of all the natural wonders that happen out there day by day.

Dive Operator:
Sardine Run South Africa / Blue Ocean Dive
www.sardinerunsouthafrica.com
+27 (0) 39 9730456