Condtions in the bay looked so much better than yesterday. The wind had died down and there was hardly any swell noticeable. The surface water near The Leap looked clear.
I jumped in from the low platform and the first think I noticed was how cold the water was. Even in a drysuit I can feel the cold, especially on my face and hands. The water looked clear, though, and I knew I wouldn't get all that cold in the drysuit. I swam out some ways before descending and headed at around 60° towards the sand line. I was somewhat disappointed as I approached the sand line how the visibility was down from yesterday. I was expecting the 10-15 metre visibility I had yesterday but this was between 5 and 10 metres. To make things worse there was snot algae over all the rocks. I don't understand how it could appear overnight. The water temperature was under 16°C. There wasn't much surge but the current was very strong. I turned left and headed towards The Steps.
I found my first weedy seadragon before I arrived at Seahorse Rock. I then found the juvenile weedy just before Bent Stick Rock. It is quite large now an I may have to stop calling it "the juvenile".
I expected to see two weedy seadragons between Bent Stick Rock and Southern Cross Rock but I didn't. I'm not sure if I missed them or they have moved on. At Southern Cross Rock I found the pink male pygmy pipehorse immediately and then the yellow male shortly later. Photographing them was difficult because the current kept dragging me away. I had to dump air from my drysuit and kneel on the sand to try to stay in place. While I was watching and photographing the pygmies, I thought that two males was odd and there should be at least one if not two females. I started to look and found a female almost straight away. I looked for a second but was still frustrated by the current and gave up.
I swam through Seadragon Alley hoping to find the other two weedy seadragons but didn't see them. I didn't need to swim much because the current was dragging me along. At the end of Seadragon Alley I looked for the pygmies on the rock with the green hand sponges. After looking for some time I found the male but couldn't see the female. Once again the current made photography difficult.
I looked again for the red pygmy pipehorse with the parasite but was not able to find it before I ran into two weedy seadragons. I photographed them before continuing on to Big Rock.
After Big Rock I found the pygmy on the rock below Hand Rock. I looked on Slope Rock but found no pygmies. I stayed along the top of the reef and passed High Pygmy Rock on the way. I looked for pygmies there but found none.
I passed the area where the "birthday pygmies" were in 2014 and on to New Basket Star Rock. The basket was still on the white honeycomb sponge. I found the red widebody pipefish in the same alga as yesterday, to the right of where the pair used to be.
I swam on to Diversity Rock. I saw the Nembrotha sp. nudibranch on the way. At Diversity Rock I found a pygmy pipehorse low down in a small colony of Carijoa. I looked on the next big rock for the white male pygmy but could not find him. The current was really strong here and it was difficult to look.
I swam on to Little Big Rock. I found a female pygmy pipehorse almost immediately. I don't believe it was the female from yesterday. I looked around for the two I saw yesterday but couldn't find them. The Carijoa was covered in snot algae that wasn't there yesterday. That didn't help looking. Hopefully the rough weather will wash it away.
I swam along the sand line hoping to see the male weedy seadragon with eggs I saw yesterday but I didn't see it. I stayed at the sand line right to the exit and then ascended directly to Split Rock. I did my safety stop at Split Rock and then swam underwater right to the exit. Greg was there and he helped my with my camera - although the exit was easy. |
