Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 25 March 2017

Time

5:23pm - 7:05pm

Details

I decided to do a twilight dive at Clifton Gardens for my mandatory dive. I was working both weekend days at Castle Hill so it seemed a logical choice. With all the rain that Sydney has had I was worried the water would be brown but was pleasantly surprised with how clear it looked from the surface.

I got in at the beach and swam out under the pier. At the end of the net I headed down the slope under the pier. I hadn't gone far down the slope when I found a largish striped angler hiding in a sponge.

I slowly made my way down to the end of the pier, crisscrossing the pier as I went. On my way down I found a green moray with a wire trace hanging from its mouth. It is things like this that make me hate fishing. Right near the bottom I found an adult White's seahorse and then nearby a small juvenile. The juvenile was only the size of a pygmy pipehorse. I have never seen one that small before. Not far from that one I found a second.

I turned and slowly made my way back up the slope. On the way up I found an interesting nudibranch, a mimic filefish, the striped angler again and more seahorses.

At the top of the slope I swam along the old net looking for seahorses. I found 3 plus a dwarf lionfish, a school of striped catfish, another mimic filefish and a dusky butterflyfish.

I swam back on the sand just to the east of the pier hoping for cephalopods but it was a bit early in the night. I got out at the beach.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

2 to 3 metres

Duration

101 minutes

Maximum depth

8.2 m

Average depth

5.4 m

Water temperature

22.3°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Sydney (Fort Denison) AEDT

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

Low

12:45am

0.60m

High

7:04am

1.65m

Low

1:37pm

0.41m

High

7:42pm

1.47m