Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on 21/4/14

Dive Details

Location

Date

21 April, 2014

Time

11:12am - 12:26pm

Details

The sea conditions had settled a lot from what they had been a few days ago and the bay looked fantastic. There was not much surge at the entry point and it was very easy to get in.

We descended and headed at 60° to the sand line, arriving at the amphitheatre. We then headed slowly towards The Steps. The tidal current was running and we didn't have to swim all that much. I found the rock where Sheree and I had previously seen "Alex" the painted angler and I explained to Noel that it should be in the area but I couldn't find it. I swam on a bit to check my bearings when Noel found "Alex" on a nearby rock.

We continued on and at the rock behind Seahorse Rock was found "Rosie" and "Bob", the pot-bellied seahorses, as was to be expected. There was also a reaper cuttlefish on the rock. A bit further on I found "Lucy" in her usual location. She's grown quite a bit from when we first saw her 5 months ago.

We headed to Seahorse Reef and found "Southern Cross", "Pierre", and "Richie". "Pierre" and "Richie" were sharing a sponge and "Pierre" was very pregnant, almost bursting. There was also a yellow boxfish near "Southern Cross".

Further towards The Steps we found a couple of weedy seadragons amongst the kelp. Di and Noel showed me some pineapplefish under a ledge up from the sand line. I had heard rumours of there being pineapplefish around but this was the first time I had seen them. Di even saw some babies.

We kept on heading towards The Steps and I showed Noel where Sheree had discovered the pygmy pipehorses and we'd seen them again yesterday. There was still only the one there today as there was yesterday. Hopefully, we'll find the pregnant male again. Noel also found a rock flathead 10 or so metres away. I suspect it was the same one Sheree found on my birthday.

We continued along the top of the reef and Di found another pygmy pipehorse. I looked hard for "Big John" or any other anglers but did not find any.

I did my safety stop near the Plesiastrea colonies and found a juvenile dusky butterflyfish. I exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Di & Noel Conlon

Seas

Slight

Visibility

15 metres

Duration

74 minutes

Maximum depth

21.1 m

Average depth

14.5 m

Water temperature

22.4°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

12:17am

1.72m

Low

7:09am

0.43m

High

1:11pm

1.32m

Low

6:48pm

0.64m

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.