Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 16 December 2016

Time

12:34pm - 2:02pm

Details

The water around Bare Island looked quite rough. It was a easterly swell that was washing around the northwest corner of the island. It was also a very high tide and even though I got in around an hour after high tide the water was still lapping the wall.

I got in to the west of the ramp. It was easier than I expected based on the waves coming in. I surface swam past the kelp and descended to the sand. Visibility was around 3 metres and there was a bit of surge.

I swam past the outboard motor and over the ledge. As I was swimming in front of the boulders I noticed a little yellow nudibranch, Diversidoris sulphurea. I continued to the top of the slope and then headed down the slope. The further I got down the slope the less surge there was but the visibility did not improve.

I checked out Juvy Rock but neither seahorse was there. I went on to the orange sponges where I'd previously seen the female but did not see her there. I swam to the corner looking at all the sponges along the way but found no seahorses. I came back the the two orange sponges from a different angle and saw the female in the larger of the two sponges. She must have been there before but I missed her.

I then started looking all around the area for the male. I eventually found him on a red chimney sponge (but not the same one he was on last week). These seahorses move around so much more than pot-bellied seahorses. While I was photographing the male seahorse I noticed a red indianfish on the sand below him. The red indianfish started moving and I shot some video as the red indianfish moved itself to just below the seahorse.

I checked out the female seahorse again estimating they were 5 metres apart before heading up the slope. I hadn't gone far before I spotted a male pygmy pipehorse. I continued up the slope and stopped at the rock above Pygmy Rock to look for pygmy pipehorses and spotted a female juvenile.

I looked for more pygmy pipehorses at the top of the slope but found none. I continued to the outboard motor where I started my safety stop. After completing my safety stop I got out where I got in. Despite the small waves it was actually easy to get out.

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

2 to 4 metres

Duration

87 minutes

Maximum depth

14.1 m

Average depth

10.4 m

Water temperature

18.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

4:20am

0.37m

High

10:48am

1.99m

Low

5:30pm

0.16m

High

11:32pm

1.42m