The Greatest Shoal On Earth
‘The Greatest Shoal on Earth’, is currently playing out in the waters off South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal’s beaches. Every year billions of sardines move Northward on their annual migration. Photographer, Craig Stanton, captured these epic aerial images of one of the world’s greatest migrations.
“I am absolutely astounded at how Mother Nature has really blessed us this year with the sardine run. I am a Scuba Diving Dive Master, so I am very conscious of the ocean environment and how lucky we were to see this”, says Stanton.
Shoals can reach kilometres in length and are spotted from above with spotter planes, radioing their locations to fishermen below who cast vast nets into the shoal catching hundreds of thousands of fish in a single cast.
This year is particularly large compared to previous years due to the colder weather causing the shoals to be pushed closer to shore.