South Africa's Great Sardine Run

It's mid-June, off the East coast of South Africa. Each year, untold millions of sardines arrive, seemingly from nowhere, forcing an explosion of life and death. No one knows why they come nor where they go once they've gone. Their mysterious month-long mission metamorphosises the waters to a flowing feast. South Africa's Great Sardine Run is a nature documentary recognizing that humanity is a fundamental facet in the grand natural order. While great attention is paid to educate the viewer about the Sardine Run itself, it is also given to show how the run affects the human population and vice versa. From the shore, thousands of men, women, and children work with and sometimes against each other to pull in nets full of sardines. Fights break out as Sardine Fever takes hold. The Natal Sharks Board must maintain a balance of safety for both the sharks and the people on the beaches, which proves to be a very complex task. As the sardines make their way up the coast, predators of all kinds come from thousands of miles away. Super pods of up to 5,000 dolphins leap in and out of the water as they search for the great silver shoals. Massive schools of sharks, in various species ranging from Hammerheads to the occasional Great White, and millions of Cape Gannets (sea birds) form an inescapable force of death.