#sardine #run #2024 #sardines #kzn #south #africa #report Surfing Sardines! By Kevin Tuohy: I think an important discussion to have is how wind and swell direction affects the movement of the sardines towards KZN during the annual sardine run. The anatomy of a wave and how they form and what causes them to become larger swells such as we get off the east coast of South Africa every year. Waves are generated by wind. Wind over the surface of a body of water causes little ripples and those ripples join together. Eventually they catch up to each other if that makes sense and they become like a little wave. And then if the wind strengthens those little waves catch up to each other and they become bigger waves and so on and so forth. And eventually we end up with swell. And the swell moves in the direction of the wind that generated it. So that's a very simplistic anatomy of the wave but that is what we call wave dynamics. The other important thing to understand is that waves work in a circular motion. So water rushes up the face of a wave. As the wave approaches the water in front of it, it pulls that water up the face in a circular motion. And the higher up the swell that circle goes, it changes direction basically. goes, it changes direction basically. So it rushes up the wave from north to south and then it crests on the top of the wave and actually the top of the wave is moving in the opposite direction. So that's basically what a swell is. And how this affects the sardines is very interesting because if we look at our winter swell that hits Southat our winter swell that hits South Africa, as any surfer will tell you, they wait every year for our south swell, those big south swells that are generated very, very deep in the Atlantic Ocean off of the tip of Africa, and very, very strong storms and violent winds down south. And that creates what we call a groundswell. So a groundswell is a swell that isn't locally generated. It's generated in the same manner as localized wind swell, but it comes from much further away. And surfers wait every year, places like Jefferies Bay just turn on in the winter time. And that's when all the international surf contests are held because of that predominant south swell that moves in. And if we talk about what south swell means, it means that it's originated in the south and it's moving from south to north. So it's moving up the east coast. Now, this is a very important factor when it comes to sardines and the movement of the sardines, because it's a topic that hasn't really been discussed much. And all the research that I'm doing, it's not evident. And I think what we need to realize is that these south swells coincide with the sardine run. And I think it's very evident to me sitting here through my observations that whenever that south swell is running and it's pushing the sardines up the coast much faster because the movement of the water on the surface is from south to north, which is exactly opposite the current, which is a north to south current. On the surface of the water, the water actually is moving over the top of the current. It's overriding it. The stronger the south swell, the more movement of the water is going opposite to the direction of the current. So what the sardines are doing is that they're actually riding these swells. Read the rest on https://thesardine.co.za. By Kevin Tuohy of Wild Coast Cottages. Affiliated YouTube Channels https://youtube.com/@Brucifire – highly entertaining surf reporting https://youtube.com/@thesardinenews – neva miss a single sardine https://youtube.com/@mydotackletalk – highly technical sport fishing https://youtube.com/@surflaunchingsouthernafrica – getting out there safely https://youtube.com/@waterwoes – complain here Affiliated websites https://umzimkulu.co.za – self-catering right on the Umzimkulu River https://umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za – sardine run coming up https://thesardine.co.za – never miss a single sardine https://masterwatermen.co.za – news from deep down https://brucifire.co.za – surf and conditions reporting https://fishbazaruto.com – your dreams are out there https://mydofishinglures.co.za – technical sport fishing ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eeo9LvrkOU

#sardines #sardinerun #run #sardine #kzn #south #africa This is a roundup and a forecast with which we can all catch our breaths and set things up for the weekend. There are many sardines coming. And the Indian Ocean and all its inhabitants are literally jumping for joy. Whales are whaling. Dolphins are playing. Birds are diving. Things could really hot up tomorrow and id the swell drops, the netting boats might be able to get out there too. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w32N5BDT65o