A wildlife lover has shared a breathtaking moment from one of the world’s most incredible wildlife spectacles: South Africa’s Sardine Run.
Attracted by the huge shoals of sardines that gather off the South African coast in early summer, birds, sharks, dolphins and whales can be found in huge numbers.
It’s “often called 'the greatest shoal on Earth',” says photographer Rolf Kolenbrander. "Billions of sardines migrate northward from the cold waters of the Cape to the warmer currents of KwaZulu-Natal, triggering a spectacular feeding frenzy involving dolphins, sharks, Cape gannets and more.”
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Kolenbrander spent five seasons trying to see this legendary moment. “However, the holy grail, a large bait ball surrounded by all the apex predators, remained elusive,” he says.
In 2025, he tried again. There were “thousands of fish swirling in dense formations,” he says. “The action was intense: sharks, dolphins, Cape gannets, and Bryde’s whales all converging in dramatic underwater chaos.”
Towards the end of his three-week trip, Kolenbrander experienced something unimaginable.
The boat’s spotter plane radioed to alert them to something exciting happening in the water below. “He’d spotted what he called 'The Eye of Sauron' – thousands of birds diving into one concentrated area, with five Bryde’s whales grazing through a sardine bait ball,” says Kolenbrander.
But, by the time they arrived, it was all over. "The whales had devoured nearly the entire bait ball just two minutes earlier,” he says. “Had we really missed the main event by mere minutes?”
Thankfully, that was just the warm-up. Twenty minutes later, the action started up again. “Five dynamic bait balls, all within a stone’s throw of each other, were being hunted by thousands of Cape gannets, countless dolphins, and seven Bryde’s whales – all in crystal-clear water,” he says.
Kolenbrander has shared his footage of this once-in-a-lifetime event on Instagram. As he’s filming the bait ball, a Bryde’s whale appears from nowhere and takes a huge gulp.
"One massive lunge and dozens of fish disappear in an instant,” he says. "Nature’s precision and power on full display!”
Image and video credit: Rolf Kolenbrander
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