Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Monday 10 August 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 10 August 2015

Time

11:28am - 1:05pm

Details

The seas had dropped quite a bit since the weekend and The Leap was looking pretty good. It was less than an hour after low tide and so I was able to get in from the low shelf. Visibility at the entry point was around 5 metres. I descended and swam at around 60° to the sand line arriving just to the right of Pygmy Rock. Visibility at Pygmy Rock was around 10 metres and there was a slight surge.

I searched Pygmy Rock for pygmy pipehorses for around 6 minutes but did not find any. I then checked out some of the adjacent rocks and found none there as well. I looked around the area for the male weedy seadragon with eggs but I couldn't see it.

I headed towards The Steps. I saw no seahorses or weedy seadragons until I reached Seadragon Alley where I saw a female (PT2015011102) right at the start. She's been around quite a bit of late.

A little further along in Seadragon Alley I saw a green turtle. I have to assume this is the same one I saw a few weeks ago. It was resting (perhaps sleeping) on the sand and I was able to get quite close before I eventually disturbed it which was not my intention. I saw no more weedies in Seadragon Alley.

I continued along the sand line past Big Rock and then ascended a bit to the rock with the newer pygmy pipehorses. I found one (IL2015070501) almost immediately and the other (IL2015072601) shortly after. I wasn't able to find the third one on the adjacent rock.

I dropped back down to the sand line and saw the female weedy with the wavy body (PT2014030901) before I reached the basket star.

Just before "Rosie"'s new location, I saw the frogfish under its usual ledge. Both "Rosie" and "Noel" were in the pink sea tulips looking pretty as a picture.

A few metres after "Rosie" and "Noel" I found a (the?) Miamira magnifica nudibranch. It looked smaller than the one we have seen recently but appeared to be sheltering from the surge so it may have just contracted a bit. There was also a weedy seadragon (PT2015072501) nearby. It has been in this area for a few weeks.

I swam on to "Di" and spotted another weedy seadragon (PT2014092001) near her rock. It has been around for at least a year. After finding "Di", I swam to the boulders and did my safety stop before exiting at The Steps.

Seas

Slight surge

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

97 minutes

Maximum depth

21.5 m

Average depth

13.8 m

Water temperature

15.3°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

4:57am

1.25m

Low

10:39am

0.55m

High

5:17pm

1.67m

Video

Video captured with GoPro Hero HD with BlurFix, Archon W38VR and Sola Photo 600 lights

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.