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. |
