Search for the elusive sardines finally pay off – 30 July 2009
The sardines, that travel in their billions up the east coast, also referred to as the biggest shoal on earth, arrived unusually late this year.
But now that they’ve finally turned up, their presence is causing a feverish battle among the netters.
Yesterday, about 15 teams of netters – who compete for the first sardines – were out spotting from sunrise, travelling in 4×4s stacked with crates and towing rubberducks.
They followed up on reports they received of the whereabouts of pockets of sardines.
Only two of the 15 groups caught sardines yesterday.
Teams led by Goolam Essack and one of his biggest competitors, Abed Khan, came down from their lookout points on to an unknown beach close to Illovo with their 4×4s and launched their rubberducks together at about 10 o’clock.
Khan had been spotting pockets of sardines on the beach all morning, but Essack and his team suddenly appeared and caught the sardines first.
“Goolam was lucky today,” said Khan.
Essack made the first catch, netting 17 crates. Minutes later, Kahn netted 45 crates.
“You mustn’t waste time when the sards are around. It’s better to go in and catch them immediately,” said Essack.
The action started on Monday with a catch of 20 crates. But most of the week’s netting took place on Tuesday, when some teams netted twice and hundreds of crates of the fish were caught.
* HD footage and photos available
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