Overview
- The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment says reports of dead or dying sardines have stopped since early August and sightings to date have declined.
- Teams collected dead sardines from multiple sites along the Western Cape coast and took healthy fish from unaffected areas to use as comparison samples for testing.
- Researchers are running disease screens, marine biotoxin assays and algal analyses at university and specialist labs but have not yet confirmed a cause.
- Oceanographic data show enhanced upwelling, unusually cold nearshore water and low oxygen in parts of the region, and a southward current could have moved affected schools along the coast.
- Some West Coast canneries are still accepting healthy catches north of St Helena Bay while others wait for test results, and the public is urged not to collect or eat dead fish.