The KwaZulu-Natal sardine run takes place along the east coast of which country?

The KwaZulu-Natal sardine run takes place along the east coast of South Africa.

Each southern winter, usually from May through July, enormous shoals of Southern African pilchards move northward from the Agulhas Bank toward the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The fish follow a narrow band of cooler inshore water while the warm Agulhas Current flows offshore in the opposite direction.

The migration creates one of the ocean’s largest feeding spectacles. Common dolphins, sharks, game fish, Cape gannets, penguins and whales gather around the shoals, while people watch or fish from beaches and boats. The sardines may form concentrations several kilometres long, though the run can be weak, shift offshore or fail to appear in some years.

A common mix-up is calling this a migration through Mozambique. The current and some shoals may extend toward Mozambique, but the named KwaZulu-Natal run is the South African coastal event. Its causes remain scientifically complex, involving temperature, currents, upwelling and predator pressure.