Sardine Run Infographics: The star of the show

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South Africa’s annual Sardine Run is a convergence of some amazing marine species – from massive shoals of southern African pilchards that journey up the coast to the predators that follow closely in their wake. The pace of the spectacle is frenetic and it can be difficult to keep up… which is precisely where our fact-filled infographics come in – they’ll make an expert out of any Sardine Run rookie.

So let’s start with the star of the show: the sardine (a.k.a the southern African pilchard). Pretty unimpressive on their own, but throw together a few million and we’ve got yourself a piscine show of epic proportions! The main shoal of migrating fish (see our Sardine Run map for a breakdown of the route) can be up to 30 metres deep, 1.5 kilometres wide and 7 kilometres long. That’s a lot of fish… it’s no wonder an array of predators appears to take advantage of this annual bounty. Dolphins are normally first on the scene: they dart in and split up the main sardine shoal into smaller, tightly packed baitballs that are pushed to the surface and preyed on by sharks, whales and swooping gannets. From sardine size to ideal water temperature, (plus a fact or two that we threw in just for good measure) our infographic’s got everything you need to know about the unassuming silvery fish that makes it all possible.

We’ll be featuring some of the other iconic Sardine Run species in the coming weeks, so watch this space for more fascinating facts and figures. Also be sure to look out for our regular updates from our crew out at sea.