The Endangered Wildlife Trust last week congratulated the Natal Sharks Board and retailer Mr Price for their bold decision to uplift the entire shark net structure along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline, saving thousands of marine animals from entanglement and death, but at the cost of the Mr Price Night Surfing Contest to have been held in Durban.

The KwaZulu-Natal coast currently has an abundance of sardine shoals and more shoals are making their way past north Port St Johns, with numerous shoals passing immediately off Durban’s beaches. Accompanying the shoals are many thousands of Common and Bottlenose Dolphins, as well as Copper, Dusky and Spinner Sharks. The Natal Sharks Board (NSB) conducts ongoing aerial, boat-based and land-based monitoring of the sardine run and on July 2, an NSB boat encountered large numbers of Common Dolphins just 500 m from shore.

To prevent the entanglement of these animals, an NSB decision was therefore taken to remove all shark nets from Zinkwazi to Port Edward, which includes the entire Durban installation.

“Potentially, a single net installation could catch several tons of sharks and / or dolphins at the height of the sardine run” said Sheldon Dudley, of the NSB.

“The nets will remain out of the water until we are as confident as we can be that the sardine activity has dissipated. It is impossible to predict with any certainty how long this will be. The movements of the sardine shoals are being monitored continuously.” As a result of this decision, the NSB advised the organisers of the international Mr Price Night Surfing Contest to cancel the contest, a decision since which has been taken. Alternative measures were discussed, including providing nets for the night surfing event. One option was to install nets on a daily basis, to have spotters stationed on piers and to have a boat on standby to release any animals that may become entangled.

However, the possibility exists that an entire school of Common Dolphins could swim into a net at any time and it would be impossible to deal effectively with such a scenario.

“Once the sardine run has passed and the shark nets can be re-installed, the EWT hopes that sporting activities which encourage the use and pleasure to be gained from our oceans can continue,” a statement released by EWT said.

“Until then, we support Mr Price and the NSB in their concession of giving marine species their own sporting chance.”