Dive Details

Location

Date

Thursday 2 February 2017

Time

10:21am - 12:07pm

Details

Another day, another dive at The Leap. I can never get sick of this place. The hope of seeing the delicate ghostpipefish again makes it even more desirable.

We jumped in at The Leap: I slid down the rocks, as did Mike and Ian. After grouping up on the surface we descended and swam at around 30° to the sand line. Visiblity was around 15 metres and the temperature was around 22°C. There was almost no surge. We turned left and headed towards The Steps.

We hadn't gone far when I noticed a large seahare on the sand between some rocks. I then found the male of Ian's pygmy pipehorses. I took a few photos and then the others moved in while I looked for the female. I eventually found her.

I went on ahead, swam past Seahorse Rock and onto the flat rock to look for the striped angler. It had moved but I managed to find it. I took a few photos and moved on as I wanted to get to the delicate ghostpipefish before the others.

I found the delicate ghostpipefish in the same alga I'd seen it yesterday, just past Southern Cross Rock. I was able to get a few photos before the others arrived. While they were fighting over the ghostpipefish, I took some photos of a weedy seadragon. After they'd finished I took a couple more shots of the ghostpipefish before moving on.

In Seadragon Alley I spotted a weedy seadragon, then a small giant cuttlefish followed by a male weedy seadragon with eggs.

I continued on to Big Rock and spotted another weedy seadragon. I then swam to the rock below Hand Rock and found the two pygmy pipehorses there. I looked around the area and found another male pygmy pipehorse. I think this may have been the same one I saw with Chris Ross last month.

I swam on to Roney's pygmies and only found the male who is quite pregnant. The female must be gone by now.

I continued on to Old Basket Star Rock and then Miamira rock. I couldn't find any Miamira magnifica nudibranchs on the rock.

I followed the sand line to Little Big Rock and then started looking for the anglers. As I swam around the area I found a Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranch. I then swam to the boulders and started my safety stop as I swam to Split Rock. After completing my safety stop I exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 20 metres

Duration

105 minutes

Maximum depth

21.6 m

Average depth

15.4 m

Water temperature

21.1°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

12:50am

1.49m

Low

6:45am

0.48m

High

12:58pm

1.61m

Low

7:24pm

0.37m