Dive at Bare Island, La Perouse, NSW on 8/3/14

Dive Details

Location

Date

08 March, 2014

Time

8:48am - 10:03am

Details

Botany Bay was flat again today. There was hardly a ripple on the water. The only water movement seemed to be from boats. The only dampener was that it was low tide however even that was not a problem.

I jumped in on the western corner of the island, descended over the rocks and headed south until I hit the wall. I dropped over the wall and turned right (north west). I immediately saw a giant cuttlefish in a cave in the wall.

I swam north west along the wall and encountered a wobbegong swimming directly towards me. I stopped to see what it would do and it saw me and stopped on the rock below me for a moment before swimming off.

I continued on along the wall until I got to the tiers and followed them along until I came along to the location of the seahorses. I found one male quite quickly but initially couldn't see any others. I went on a bit past that location because I had seen the yellow female further along. I found her pretty much where I'd seen her two weeks ago. I looked around near her but couldn't find any more. I went back to the male I'd seen and looked more carefully. I eventually found the red, black and white female right out in the open. Her camouflage is pretty good. I kept looking and then found a very pregnant male. I think this might be the male that Della has seen giving birth. I watched it for a while hoping it would give birth while I was there but it was not to be.

I headed back along the tiers and then headed east to the shallow wall. It took me a little while to find it but once found I was able to move along to the north looking for the angler. I finally found it on some sponges which made it much less obvious. While I was there it started fishing with its lure.

I followed the wall north and then around the corner and up the slope to the northern side of the island and I exited at the ramp.

Seas

Flat

Visibility

5-10 metres

Duration

75 minutes

Maximum depth

17.0 m

Average depth

12.2 m

Water temperature

20.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.

High

2:18am

1.50m

Low

9:00am

0.62m

High

2:51pm

1.17m

Low

8:39pm

0.68m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D7000

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6801.70

Lens port

Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41

Strobe

2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161

Photographs

Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis. 14.8 m.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis. 15.8 m.

Dwarf lionfish, Dendrochirus brachypterus. 15.2 m.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis. 15.3 m.

Very pregnant male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis. 15 m.

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 14.7 m.

Painted angler, Antennarius pictus. 10.8 m.

Painted angler, Antennarius pictus, with lure extended. 10.8 m.

Common Sydney octopus, Octopus tetricus. 7.4 m.