Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 14 June 2015

Time

12:44pm - 1:57pm

Details

Conditions looked pretty good at The Leap. It was close to low tide so I was able to jump in from the low platform. Visibility at the entry point was at least 5 metres. I descended and swam to the sand line at around 60° and arrived at the southern end of the amphitheatre.

I swam to Pygmy Rock and started my search for the little pygmy pipehorse and was surprised to find it almost immediately. Unfortunately, it was a bit surgy and it was not easy to photograph.

I headed off towards Seahorse Rock and found a weedy seadragon on the way. It was the same one I'd seen on the other side of the flat top sponge covered rock last Monday.

I swam past Seahorse Rock having a quick look for pygmies and seahorses and stopped at the low rock where "Pierre", the pot-bellied seahorse, moved to. I couldn't find him initially and was just about to give up when I noticed him squeezed between two sponges.

I continued on to Seadragon Alley. Right at the start of Seadragon Alley I came across three weedy seadragons together. Two I had seen before but I didn't get any photos of the third so I don't know if I'd seen it before.

At the end of Seadragon Alley I went to the top of the reef past the top of big reef and tried to find the Miamira magnifica again but didn't find it.

After my search I swam up to the boulders and did my safety stop and then exited at The Steps.

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

10 metres

Duration

72 minutes

Maximum depth

21.3 m

Average depth

15.5 m

Water temperature

17.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

12:20am

0.45m

High

6:14am

1.48m

Low

12:07pm

0.43m

High

6:40pm

1.87m

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.

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 20.3 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 20.4 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 19.8 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 20.8 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 20.9 m.
 

Hairy red hermit crab, Dardanus lagopodes. 18.3 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Pierre"). 18.9 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 17.7 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 17.4 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 17.4 m.