Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 13 April 2018

Time

2:31pm - 4:21pm

Details

I hadn't dived since Saturday and was very keen for a dive. It was a hot day and I thought I'd be on my own but Roney joined me at the last minute. It was calm at both The Steps and The Leap.

It was just under 2 hours after low tide and the water was well below the low platform so I got in from there. Roney got in from the shelf. We swam out and once we were ready we descended and swam at around 60° to the sand line. We arrived near the amphitheatre. The sun was quite low but the visibility appeared to be around 15 metres. There was a gentle current and not much surge. The water temperature was around 17°C. We turned left and headed towards The Steps.

We swam along the sand line and hadn't gone very far when I spotted a robust ghostpipefish. This was my first of the season and quite late, too. Others had seen them already, but only in the last couple of weeks. I showed it to Roney.

We continued along the sand line past Seahorse Rock and on to the flat rocks with sponges. I initially didn't see any weedy seadragons at all. Roney called me up to one of the higher rocks and pointed out a fiddler ray. It was nice to see but as I'm set up for macro there were no photos to be had. I swam back down to the flat rocks and spotted to weedy seadragons on the outside of the rocks. Roney continued on.

I swam on to Southern Cross Rock where I found one male pygmy pipehorse. I couldn't find any others nor could I find the black painted anglerfish.

I headed into Seadragon Alley and found a weedy seadragon not far from the start. I looked around for the juvenile weedy but could not find it. I came across another weedy seadragon a little farther along. Around two thirds of the way through Seadragon Alley I found another robust ghostpipefish.

At the end of Seadragon Alley I looked for the red Stigmatopora sp. pipefish. They weren't in their new location so I checked out the old location and found the brighter coloured one of the two. I looked around for the duller one but could not find it.

I continued along the sand line hoping to find more ghostpipefish but found nothing of interest until I reached Big Rock. I checked out the base of the rock below Hand Rock and found the whitish male pygmy pipehorse that has been around for a while. I couldn't find the female.

As I headed up the reef towards Square Rock I bumped into Roney. I couldn't find any pygmy pipehorses on Square Rock. I found the one-eyed seahorse on her rock.

Roney and I headed over to where Daniela had found the white/pink anglerfish. Roney had told me he hadn't seen it in a while. I'd last seen it a week ago. We looked all over the rock and couldn't find it.

We swam along the top of the reef to New Basket Star Rock and then on past Diversity Rock to Little Big Rock. I looked for the pygmy pipehorses behind Little Big Rock and only found the white female. Roney was cold and left me here. It was also getting quite dark.

I swam on to the rock where the yellow red-fingered anglerfish has been. It had moved to the spot where the grey red-fingered anglerfish had been on the sand line side of the rock.

I looked around the area for other anglerfishes but found none. I did find a Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranch.

I came back to the anglerfish before heading for the boulders. I ascended to 5 metres and started my safety stop while swimming to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop and swam to the exit, staying underwater right to the exit. I climbed out on to the rocks with ease.

Buddy

Roney Rodrigues

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 15 metres

Duration

110 minutes

Maximum depth

21.6 m

Average depth

13.7 m

Water temperature

16.9°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

12:08am

0.62m

High

6:19am

1.60m

Low

12:45pm

0.45m

High

6:54pm

1.52m