My First Sardine Run

Chris Mitchell · Issue 58, Jan/Feb 2011 · pp. 41–42

Imagine being dropped into 18 degree green water, with 2 metre visibility, and just about making out the glint of a large baitball of sardines in front of you. Then imagine the constant sound of gunshots overhead - but it’s not gunfire, it’s the deafening crack gannets make as they divebomb from the sky above into the baitball to effortlessly snatch a sardine 10 metres down and then shoot back to the surface. Then imagine seeing six dolphins coming straight at you, so fast that trying to move would be pointless because collision is inevitable, only for them to corkscrew away at the last moment with laser guided precision. And just as you get your breathing under control again, the sharks turn up... that was essentially my experience of South Africa’s Sardine Run in July 2010. Despite all the video I’d watched and photos I’d seen, nothing prepared me for the sheer sensory overload of bein…