Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 9 December 2018

Time

8:38am - 9:59am

Buddy

Sheree Rose

Seas

Some surge

Visibility

3 to 15 metres

Duration

81 minutes

Surface interval

Maximum depth

13.4 m

Average depth

9.4 m

Water temperature

16°C

Dive Profile from Garmin Descent Mk1

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

3:46am

0.52m

High

10:21am

1.78m

Low

5:01pm

0.36m

High

10:57pm

1.29m

Details

Sheree joined me for today's dive at The Monument. It was an incoming tide so we'd dive anticlockwise getting in at the protected area and exiting in front of the flagpoles.

We waded out until it was deep enough to put our fins on and then we swam out to the edge of the shelf. We descended and swam towards the sand line. The visibility was 10 to 15 metres. There wasn't much current and there was just a small amount of surge. The water temperature was between 16 and 17°C.

Once I got my bearings I was able to find the small orange red-fingered anglerfish that I originally found two weeks ago and found again yesterday. I took some photographs and pointed it out to Sheree.

We followed the reef to Block Rock and the adjacent sponge covered rock and then on to Pygmy Hollow. I found a female pygmy pipehorse in the gap next to the white honeycomb sponge. I found another female, a grey one, opposite on the adjacent rock. I wasn't able to find any others.

We swam along the Deep Wall past where the pot-bellied seahorses had been. I kept my eye out for them as we swam by. The water temperature had dropped to around 16°C by now. We swam up the wall and over to the higher reef. I looked on the rock there for pygmy pipehorses.

We headed to the slope below Seahorse Rock. I looked for "Nia", the brown White's seahorse, on the slope but could not find her.

We followed the reef past Split Rock and and on to the NW-SE Wall. We then dropped down to the Valley of the Pygmies.

I found the reliable male first who was hanging out in his usual spot. I then checked out the rock and saw the white/red male and the pink female. We headed back to the slope where I found another male pygmy pipehorse. I pointed out all the pygmies I found to Sheree. I wasn't able to find any others.

We swam up the NW-SE Wall and over the top to the reef there. We followed that for a while and then cut the corner to the eastern end of the East-West Wall. I spotted the orange red-fingered anglerfish on the large Carijoa covered rock. I pointed it out to Sheree.

We swam west along the base of the East-West Wall. I was looking for seahorses as we went. As we approached the rock where "Naomi", the yellowish White's seahorse, has been, Sheree called me back. She'd found an eastern frogfish with its head sticking out.

A little farther along I managed to find "Naomi" on here original rock. I took some photographs and pointed her out to Sheree.

We continued west along the base of the wall to the isolated rock with Mandy's pygmies on it. I spotted the pink female first and then the golden male. I photographed them and pointed them out.

We followed the base of the wall as far as the basket star and then swam up the wall and headed south over the kelp until we reached the sand. We swam slowly over the sand in the hope of finding something interesting. I then came across a female white's seahorse in the algae on the sand.

We swam south until it was too shallow and then we waded out.