Where to see Sardine Run in 2026
Southern African pilchard · Sardinops sagax
Annual northward migration of billions of sardines along South Africa's Wild Coast, attracting common dolphins, bronze whalers, dusky sharks, Bryde's whales, and Cape gannets into spectacular bait-ball feeding events.
Best months
Difficulty & experience
Comfortable in cold open water, surface conditions, and rapid boat entries. Open Water minimum; Advanced strongly recommended. Most operators run snorkel-and-scuba hybrid trips.
Best locations
- Aliwal Shoalprimary
South Africa
Most reliable operator base during the peak weeks of the run, with short steam to the action along the Transkei coast.
Sites at these locations
- Sardine Run
Aliwal Shoal, South Africa
Not a fixed reef but a moving feeding frenzy. Each winter the cold Benguela counter-current pushes a tongue of sub-21°C water up the coast, and billions of Southern African pilchard migrate northeast from the Eastern Cape along the Wild Coast into southern KwaZulu-Natal. Pods of up to 18,000 common dolphins herd the fish into bait balls 10–20 m wide, which copper (bronze whaler) sharks, Bryde's whales and dive-bombing Cape gannets shred within minutes. Divers and snorkellers drop into open blue water alongside a ball as it forms — spotter planes radio the boats onto the action, and most balls hold for under ten minutes. Surf launches, surge and cold green water make this a demanding expedition, run mainly in June and July.
- Cathedral
Aliwal Shoal, South Africa
Sandstone amphitheater in the middle of Aliwal Shoal — winter aggregation site for ragged-tooth (sand tiger) sharks. Dozens stack inside the bowl from June through November. Tiger sharks are commonly spotted in summer baited dives on the same reef.
- Raggie Cave
Aliwal Shoal, South Africa
Series of overhangs where ragged-tooth sharks rest mid-water during their winter mating aggregation. You can drift slowly along the ledge and watch dozens of sharks at arm's length. Whale and dolphin sounds often audible during the sardine run.
- Protea Banks
Aliwal Shoal, South Africa
A deep offshore reef 7.5 km off Shelly Beach on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, running roughly 6 km between a Northern and Southern Pinnacle at 27-40 m. Agulhas-fed current draws seven shark species: bull (Zambezi) sharks year-round, schooling scalloped hammerheads in spring and early summer, ragged-tooth sharks gathering to mate in winter, and tiger sharks in autumn. Sardine Run baitfish funnel through in June and July. Dived as a current drift, often on a baited line, with the reef deep enough that bottom time is short.
Plan a trip
Methodology
How we picked these locations
We use the sighting-occurrence-cluster methodology: encounter regions are ranked from primary to closed based on documented occurrence records, operator continuity, and regulator permit status. We never publish per-trip sighting probabilities — “best” here means the most reliably documented region for this encounter, not a guarantee.
We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.
Sightings vary year to year. Some seasons produce no full-day bait balls. Confidence is based on multi-year occurrence clustering, not a per-trip probability.