Dive Details

Location

Date

Tuesday 22 December 2015

Time

1:12pm - 2:43pm

Details

We hit the water shortly after low tide. Ken took a leap while I got in from the low platform. Visibility on the surface looked great. We descended and headed to the sand line at around 60°. We arrived in the middle of the amphitheatre. Visibility had dropped to only 3 to 5 metres.

We swam towards The Steps. At Seahorse Rock we came across the school of striped catfish that had been there on Sunday. We played with them for a bit. We then swam on towards Seadragon Alley. I didn't find any weedy seadragons before Seadragon Alley. Being overcast and poor visibility made spotting weedies a little more difficult.

In Seadragon Alley we saw only 3 weedy seadragons: a male with eggs (PT2014030803), a new large juvenile (PT2015122201) and the female with the deformed body (PT2014030901). Between Seadragon Alley and Big Rock we saw two more weedies: a large juvenile (PT2015051001) and a male with lost of eggs (PT2014123002).

After Big Rock we headed up the reef to the pygmy pipehorses. I found both the female (IL2015072601) and the male (IL2015121201).

We headed back to the sand line where we saw another weedy seadragon, a male with a lot of eggs (PT2015061401). After the basket star we saw a female weedy (PT2014092001). While looking for the male pygmy pipehorse (IL2015121501) that Kim found a week earlier, I found his partner (IL2015122201). I expected her to be there but just hadn't looked carefully enough. I found the male, too.

We swam on to Diversity Rock where Ken left me and I looked for seahorses. "Noel" and "Daniel" were low down on Diversity Rock and "Rosie" and "Arnold" were on the rock behind. The angler was on the rock to the left. I swam on to the other seahorses and found a Nembrotha purpureolineata on the way. Both "Di" and "Mikhail" were on their usual rock.

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

Buddy

Ken Rids

Seas

Slight

Visibility

3 to 10 metres

Duration

90 minutes

Maximum depth

20.9 m

Average depth

13.5 m

Water temperature

18.3°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

6:19am

1.69m

Low

12:49pm

0.41m

High

6:46pm

1.41m

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.

Striped catfish, Plotosus lineatus. 20.2 m.
 

Striped catfish, Plotosus lineatus. 20.1 m.
 

Striped catfish, Plotosus lineatus. 20.2 m.
 

Striped catfish, Plotosus lineatus. 20.1 m.
 

Mosaic leatherjacket, Eubalichthys mosaicus. 17.8 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030803). 17 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030803). 17 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015122201). 16.3 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030901). 15.6 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015051001). 14.3 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014123002). 13.9 m.
 

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 11.7 m.
 

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 11.7 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121201). 11.6 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121201). 11.5 m.
 

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.4 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014092001). 13.7 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014092001). 13.7 m.
 

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015122201). 12.6 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121501). 12.6 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121501). 12.6 m.
 

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015122201). 12.6 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Arnold"). 11.9 m.
 

Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus, ("Kim"). 12.3 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Noel"). 13 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Daniel"). 13.1 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 11.7 m.
 

Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus, ("Kim"). 12.1 m.
 

Nudibranch, Nembrotha purpureolineata. 11.7 m.
 

Nudibranch, Nembrotha purpureolineata. 12 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 9.9 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 10 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 10.1 m.