Dive Details
Location
Date
Wednesday 11 March 2015
Time
7:41pm - 9:09pm
Details
We were treated to a light show as we were getting ready for the dive. The lightning was lighting up the bay and surrounds. The bay itself was quite calm except for the occasional large set of waves coming from the south east.
We had planned to jump in on the western side of the island but the aforementioned waves made it a bit risky so we got in at the "swimming pool" on the north west tip. The inflator on my BCD kept sticking so I had to disconnect it and manually inflate the BCD for the dive which was no drama at all.
We swam around the corner on the surface and then descended and headed south-south-west to the wall. Along the way to the wall I spotted a red indianfish and a dwarf lionfish and another dwarf lionfish was seen at the wall. We ended up on the wall near the end and we turned right. It wasn't long before we were at the seahorses.
After the seahorses we kept heading west and Tomas pointed out a red-fingered angler. We then headed north over the sand where we saw a few eastern spiny gurnards. Once we hit the reef in front of the shallow wall, Tomas pointed out a white/pink male pygmy pipehorse. I think this was the one Aurora found.
We then headed west along the wall, turning north as the wall turned. We encountered a playful southern calamri squid which got everyone's attention. I found a small brown male pygmy pipehorse on one of the rocks just off the wall. At this point Tomas took the others as one of them was getting low on air. I still had over 100 bar so I continued on my own.
When I got to the caves on the corner I headed west for a while. I looked very carefully for pygmy pipehorses hoping a repeat of last week's success but found none. I did find a couple of eastern frogfish. I turned and came back east following the wall to the shallows and then swam along the boulders past the outboard motor and to the northern side of the island where I exited.
Buddy
Tomas and Scubathlon
Seas
Slight
Visibility
5 to 10 metres
Duration
88 minutes
Maximum depth
17.7 m
Average depth
12.5 m
Water temperature
21.6°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEDT
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
High
12:24am
1.54m
Low
6:43am
0.54m
High
12:43pm
1.37m
Low
6:40pm
0.55m
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.
Common Sydney octopus, Octopus tetricus. 9.5 m.
Red indianfish, Pataecus fronto. 11.2 m.
Dwarf lionfish, Dendrochirus brachypterus. 13.8 m.
Dwarf lionfish, Dendrochirus brachypterus. 17.2 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Tomas"). 15.8 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Della"). 15.6 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Della"). 15.8 m.
Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 16.8 m.
Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 16.4 m.
Eastern spiny gurnard, Lepidotrigla pleuracanthica. 14.6 m.
Eastern spiny gurnard, Lepidotrigla pleuracanthica. 14.8 m.
Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 14 m.
Spider crab, Oncinopus neptunus. 11.5 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 11.6 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 11.5 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 11.6 m.
Dendrophyllid coral. 12.3 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 12.9 m.
Eastern frogfish, Batrachomoeus dubius. 12.9 m.
Eastern frogfish, Batrachomoeus dubius. 14.1 m.
Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 9.9 m.
Flathead, Platycephalus sp. 8.5 m.