Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 28 February 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 28 February 2015

Time

1:12pm - 2:28pm

Details

There was a slight easterly swell on the bay but it was not making much impression on the surface at The Leap. As the tide was low I had no problem using the low shelf as my entry point. I jumped in, descended and swam at around 60°. I ended up at the end of the wall. Visibility was around 10 metres and there was a bit of surge perpendicular to the sand line.

I swam north west to Pygmy Rock and was disappointed to see that the large white male pygmy pipehorse was no longer on Pygmy Rock. I searched the rest of Pygmy Rock finding a small brown pygmy pipehorse almost immediately and 2 more after a but more searching. It was only after reviewing my photographs that I realised I had actually found 4 pygmies in total as there were two together. Pygmy Rock just keeps giving and I have seen at least one pygmy pipehorse on it for every dive since the start of October 2014.

I headed on to Seahorse Rock and found a weedy seadragon on the way. It was one I have seen in the same approximate location numerous times since March 2014. This was the first time I had seen it since 1 January 2015.

I found "Rosie" on the rock behind Seahorse Rock. She was hiding near the top. I could not find any other seahorses on the rock with her.

I continued on to the location where "Southern Cross" used to live. I searched for "Pierre" but could not find him. I was not surprised as he can be difficult to find and often hides.

I swam on to Seadragon Alley where I found 4 weedy seadragons. I had seen all 4 before and 2 of them were males but they no longer had eggs.

After Seadragon Alley I headed up to the top of the reef. I followed the top of the reef along to as far as Little Big Rock and then headed back to the sand line in the hope I could find the Miamira magnifica nudibranch that Deb Cooke found a few weeks ago. I didn't find it. I then headed to the boulders, reaching them near the Plesiastrea colonies. The visibility dropped to around 3 metres at this point. I did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

3-10 metres

Duration

76 minutes

Maximum depth

21.4 m

Average depth

16.1 m

Water temperature

19.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

5:23am

1.52m

Low

12:14pm

0.57m

High

6:12pm

1.20m

Low

11:49pm

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.