Durban - Some 4 000 specimens of the similarly small-sized species many would associate with fish-paste recently landed on Addington Beach, mixed up with sand from a dredging operation.
Credit: INDEPENDENT MEDIA
Five-year-old Troy Thompson diverts his attention to Deon, the brindle bass that dominates a tank also occupied by sharks and anchovy newcomers.Picture: Zanele ZuluNow two weeks out of quarantine, they have a new home in a tank at uShaka Marine World.
There has been a sudden growth in the numbers off Durban's coast, at much the same time as the annual sardine run has been on the wane.
“Why we have suddenly had a big pulse of adults is very difficult to say,” Sean Fennessy, senior scientist at the Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI), told The Independent on Saturday.
He said that although anchovieswere more common in colder waters, such as the Atlantic Ocean from where they feed the Western Cape’s fishing industry, they have always lived off KwaZulu-Natal but never known to have been in such numbers.
“We don’t get them in commercial quantities here at all. It’s not the prime habitat. They prefer cooler water,” he said.
Fennessy said the shoals of the species, Engraulis encrasicolus, had probably been the cause of big shadows in the sea between uMhlanga and Durban that were visible from the road.
In their new home in the uShaka Marine World tank they’re beginning to group into a shoal, in line with their natural behaviour to appear as a large body.
They share it with sharks and a brindle bass called Deon that rules the waters “with his attitude”, according to uShaka Marine World spokeswoman Ann Kunz. She believes the company the anchovies keep should not put them in any danger.
“It’s a misconception that a shark will eat anything in its way,” she said. “In any case they're fed enough not to be bothered with an anchovy.”
The anchovies are fed a blended mix of prawns and hake, in a liquid form, which they take in through filter feeding.
uShaka Marine World collected them from Addington Beach. Senior ORI aquarist Craig Smith said, much to the convenience of the aquarium, the anchovies had “caught themselves”, landing up in a well that had developed on the shore as a result of watery sand being pumped to widen the beach for the tourist season.
A river formed draining much of the water back into the ocean but an anchovy-filled well stayed behind and the fish were caught in nets.
The shoal among the sharks had Pretoria visitors John and Violet Rammutla in awe, standing in front of the tank waving their hands like composers before an orchestra.
“I’m trying to see if they’ll react,” he explained.
Independent on Saturday
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