Dive at The Steps, Kurnell, NSW on Tuesday 24 November 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Time

10:31am - 11:59am

Details

My aim for the dive was to try to find a seahorse a fellow diver had found on The Monument side of The Steps. I jumped in at The Steps, descended to the sand line and turned left. Visibility was only 3 to 5 metres which I guess was not surprising as it was an out going tide.

I swam through the kelp until I found the reef and then followed the reef on the sand line, checking each rock for seahorses. I did find a male weedy seadragon (PT2014012601) with eggs. I continued until I hit 15 minutes and turned and headed back to The Steps. It only took me 5 minutes to get back to The Steps.

From The Steps I swam along the sand line until I reached the rock with sponges where we first saw "Big John" and "Little Andrew". I swam up from the reef to the rock where "Di" used to be hoping she'd be back> I could not find her.

I continued on to Diversity Rock checking out all the rocks along the way for seahorses and nudibranchs.

At Diversity Rock I found the male pygmy pipehorse (IL2015102401) in the Cairjoa and "Noel" was in the sea tulips. "Arnold" was in algae on the rock behind Diversity Rock. The angler was on the rock to the left. I found "Daniel" on the rock above and to the left where he was on Sunday and I eventually found "Rosie" on the other side of that rock. I looked on the large rock to the right for "Greg" but could not find him.

I swam past the basket star to the other pygmies and found both the male (IL2015092701) and the female (IL2015072601).

I headed back past the basket star which was starting to open. I briefly stopped at Diversity Rock before heading off for one more look for "Di". On the way I found two different Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranchs but I didn't find "Di".

I swam to the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

88 minutes

Maximum depth

13.6 m

Average depth

10.6 m

Water temperature

20.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

1:06am

0.26m

High

7:30am

1.79m

Low

1:55pm

0.26m

High

7:57pm

1.55m

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.