Dive Details
Location
Date
30 June, 2013
Time
10:45am - 11:46am
Details
Entered at The Leap. It was a bit rough but still safe to enter. The surface water was like cold soup with a lot of freshwater. Once we descended to 5 metres it cleared up a lot with at least 5 metres visibility. By the time we got to the sand line, it had opened up to between 10 and 15 metres.
We hit the sand line on the wall and immediately encountered the first of many Port Jackson sharks. We followed the sand line north, finding a couple of weedy seadragons before we got to Seahorse Rock. "Bob", "Kel" and "Rosie" were all on their usual rock behind Seahorse Rock. I could not find the grey basket star near Seahorse Rock.
After heading further north we found "Southern Cross" and "Richie" in their usual location. We followed the sand line north
We found 3 more weedy seadragons, including a juvenile which had large holes in its head, more Port Jackson sharks and a large bull ray. The holes in the head of the juvenile weedy looked like it had some kind of infection rather than a bite.
When I hit 50 bar we headed for 5 metres to do a safety swim. The visibility decreased to less than 5 metres at 5 metres and after the safety swim we went to the surface, passing through more cold soup with freshwater. We exited at The Steps - a relativley easy exit.
Buddy
Sheree Papuni
Seas
Rough
Visibility
3-15 metres
Duration
60 minutes
Maximum depth
21.6 m
Average depth
15.4 m
Water temperature
17.7°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Cyber Aqualand Nx
Tides at Botany Bay AEST
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
High
1:24am
1.52m
Low
7:56am
0.47m
High
2:18pm
1.50m
Low
8:26pm
0.69m
Camera gear
Camera
Nikon D300
Lens
Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II +5 diopter
Housing
Ikelite 6812.3
Lens port
Ikelite 6" Dome Port 5503.50
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.
Port Jackson shark, Heterodontus portusjacksoni. 20.2 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 20.7 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 20.6 m.
Port Jackson shark, Heterodontus portusjacksoni. 21.5 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 20.9 m.
Port Jackson shark, Heterodontus portusjacksoni. 20.4 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Kel"). 19.8 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 19.7 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Bob"). 19.9 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Southern Cross"). 17.9 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Southern Cross"). 18.2 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Richie"). 17.5 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 15.7 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 16.2 m.
Juvenile weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, with damage to its head. 15.3 m.
Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 13.6 m.