Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Thursday 20 August 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Thursday 20 August 2015

Time

8:41am - 10:13am

Details

Conditions at The Leap looked great today. There wasn't much swell and the water looked clean. I slid down the rock as there was a bit too much water over the low shelf. I descended and headed to the sand line at around 60°. I reached the sand line to the south east of Pygmy Rock. Visibility was around 15 metres.

I swam slowly to Pygmy Rock and checked out some of the low rocks for pygmies but found none. I spent maybe 5 minutes checking Pygmy Rock before moving on. I wanted to make sure I had time at the end to find all the seahorses.

I continued on to Seadragon Alley. I came what I think is a female weedy seadragon (PT2013122201) just before Seadragon Alley. This is one I have seen many times since I first saw it in December 2013.

Once in Seadragon Alley, I saw four more weedy seadragons, 2 females (PT2015011102, PT2015052401), a male (PT2014030803), and a juvenile (PT2015050901).

Because I'd spent less time at the start of the dive looking for more pygmies, I had more time to look in the shallower water. I checked out Big Rock for pygmies but found none. I then moved on to the rock up from the sand line where I have been seeing two pygmies regularly and found both (IL2015070501, IL2015072601) straight away. After photographing them I looked at the adjacent rock and eventually found the other one (IL2015072602).

As I usually do, I headed back to the sand line, past the basket star and on to the new location for "Rosie". I found both "Noel" and "Rosie" in the area.

I swam on slowly to the other seahorse, hoping to see the Miamira magnifica nudibranch but I didn't see it. I found "Di" hiding in the sponge she's often in. If I didn't know to look there I would certainly not find her.

I still had plenty of air so I swam back to sand line and slowly swam to the exit looking for weedy seadragons but there were none to be found. I did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

15 metres

Duration

91 minutes

Maximum depth

21.5 m

Average depth

13.4 m

Water temperature

16.3°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

5:26am

0.48m

High

11:47am

1.44m

Low

5:51pm

0.62m

High

11:50pm

1.39m

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.