Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 17 January 2015

Time

1:52pm - 3:02pm

Details

The Leap looked beautiful. There was almost no wind and very little swell. The low shelf was exposed and made a great entry point. After jumping in I descended keeping my eye out for the seal I'd seen last week. I swam to the sand line at around 60° but must have drifted south a bit as I ended up at the wall. The visibility here was around 8 metres.

I swam along the wall until it ended and then swam to the white male pygmy pipehorse. It was in it's usual spot. I initially couldn't find any others and then spotted a reddish one. I believe this is the same one I saw last week and also on New Year's Day.

I headed to Seahorse Rock and didn't see any weedy seadragons along the way. The visibility dropped to around 5 metres and there was almost no current so it felt like I was swimming into current. I found "Rosie" on her usual rock but could not find "Lucky" at all. I hope he's still around.

I continued on to the next seahorses. I found "Pierre" hiding on his usual sponge but I could not find "Southern Cross" at all even after searching for 10 minutes or so. I do hope she was just hiding.

I swam on to Seadragon Alley where I only saw 2 weedy seadragons. The first one I have seen numerous times over the last 12 months and perhaps even longer. The second one was a male with eggs who I have seen a number of times since September. He's had eggs on every occasion except one.

At the end of Seadragon Alley I headed up the slope to the top of the reef and then to the boulders to do my safety stop as I was swimming to the exit. I reached the Plesiastrea colonies at 5 minutes and swam to the exit. With the tide still low it was an easy exit.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

3 to 8 metres

Duration

69 minutes

Maximum depth

21.5 m

Average depth

15.8 m

Water temperature

16.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

6:19am

1.61m

Low

1:01pm

0.49m

High

6:48pm

1.28m

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 Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.2 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 20.7 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 19.7 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 19.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis. 17 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 16.9 m.
 

Eggs of the tail of a male weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 15.2 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 15.3 m.