Dive Details
Location
Date
Monday 1 January 2018
Time
7:46am - 9:08am
Details
New Years Day! My first dive of the year. The tides were not great with high tide at 8:15am so Mike and I decided on an early dive. If we hit the water around 7:45am we'd have around an hour of slack water.
We waded out to the point and surface swam out to the edge of the wall. We descended at around 7:47am so we pretty much hit our target. Visibility was around 5 metres and there was no current and no surge. The water temperature was around 17°C. We swam west along the reef although I lost Mike somewhere along the way. I got to the sand and then looked out for the rock where "Sunshine", the pot-bellied seahorse has been. I hadn't seen her since November so I couldn't be sure she'd be there. I found the rock and initially couldn't see her. I started hunting around the rock when I noticed her in the middle of the rock hanging on to a white honeycomb sponge. I looked around the rock and surrounding rocks for a male, all the while hoping Mike would swim up. He didn't. I swam off in search of Mike.
I headed back the way I'd come but a bit shallower when I eventually saw Mike. He signalled to me and I swam over and he showed me a small female pygmy pipehorse. I then noticed a male pygmy pipehorse close by. We took photographs of each pygmy. I then asked Mike to follow me to the seahorse.
We swam to the sand and then on to the rock where "Sunshine" was. I pointed her out and while Mike was taking photographs I looked around again for a male but didn't find one.
We headed back towards the pygmies. The water temperature dropped rapidly to 16°C making it a bit unpleasant. I took a few more shots of the pygmies before we continued around the reef. I came across a medium sized giant cuttlefish settled on the reef.
We went right around the corner so we were on the NW-SE reef. I came to a rock where I have previously seen a grey red-fingered anglerfish and was somewhat surprised to find a grey red-fingered anglerfish as it had been a couple of months since I'd seen one there. I pointed it out to Mike before moving on.
I examined the rocks for pygmy pipehorses and anglerfishes. I eventually came to the rock with the white honeycomb sponges where I'd seen the white/pink red-fingered anglerfish with the white pygmy pipehorse. I looked carefully on the rock and found the white female pygmy pipehorse. There was also a Polycera hedgpethi nudibranch on the same rock. I took some photographs and when Mike came up and I pointed the pygmy and nudibranch to him.
I continued on to Slope Rock and surrounds. I looked for Dama's red male pygmy but couldn't find it. I found a pinkish male on another rock where I have seen pygmies before. I'll have to check my photos to see if it is new or not. I swam down to Carijoa Rock and had a quick look for anglers and pygmies but was distracted by the cold and I was also running low on air.
I swam up to Seahorse Rock and had a quick look for the seahorses and spindle cowries but didn't find them. Mike swam up and started looking, too. I swam over the sand briefly looking for the little dragonfish and then briefly checked the Capnella colonies for the egg cowries but found neither.
I ascended to 5 metres and started my safety stop as I swam to the little bay to the south of the point. After finishing my safety stop I swam up to the bay and surfaced 10 metres south of it and surface swam into the bay. There were waves coming into the bay but my exit was easy. I waited on the rocks for Mike.
Buddy
Mike Scotland
Seas
Slight
Visibility
3 to 5 metres
Duration
81 minutes
Maximum depth
13.7 m
Average depth
11.0 m
Water temperature
16.1°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEDT
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
Low
1:42am
0.33m
High
8:15am
1.94m
Low
2:54pm
0.18m
High
8:51pm
1.46m
Camera gear
Camera
Nikon D500
Lens
Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED
Housing
Ikelite 6812.5
Lens port
Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41
Strobe
2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161
Photographs
Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Sunshine"). 11.6 m.