Bare Island looked fantastic especially considering the impact of Tropical Cyclone Marcia which had only just hit the Queensland coast. I wanted to get in on the western side of the island but there was the occasional set of large waves coming through so I played it safe and got in on the northern side of the island and swam on the surface around to the western side.
I descended and headed at around 240° to the seahorses. I think I actually landed right at them but the visibility was only 4-5 metres and I lost my bearings and had to swim around for a bit to find the area. Once I was in the area I was able to find "Tomas" and "Della" quite quickly. I was not able to find any other seahorses.
I headed west along the reef for a while and then headed north over the sand. I came on a small rock, about a metre in diameter. It looked like it could host pygmy pipehorses and so I looked and found a tiny one (less than 20mm long).
I continued north until I hit the shallow wall and followed it west and then north. When I got to the caves on the corner I came on two other divers (from Scubathlon) who were looking at an eastern blue devil in one of the caves. It has been a few years since I have seen a blue devil at the caves.
I then headed west to see if I could find the anglers from last week. I am pretty sure I found the rock they were on but they were not there. Others had also suggested they had moved on. While looking for the anglers I found a fiddler ray, a crested horn shark, and a fine-spotted porcupine fish. I have not seen the latter before.
I headed east again and went in search of the weedy seadragon from last week. I found it just to the west of where it was last week. It no longer had any eggs.
I made my way to the exit stopping at a number of rocks along the way to look for pygmy pipehorses but found none. I exited on the northern side of the island. |
