Dive Details
Location
Date
16 November, 2013
Time
3:12pm - 4:19pm
Details
Entered at The Leap. It was quite rough on the surface but as we descended it was a lot calmer. We swam down to the sand line and turned toward The Steps.
We checked out the rock behind seahorse rock and found "Kel" and "Bob". "Rosie" was not visible on the rock at all. While searching the neighbouring rocks, Sheree found two velvetfish and then found a juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse. She was smaller than an adult White's seahorse and very cute. Sheree named her "Lucy" and we hope to see her again.
We gave up looking for "Rosie" and got on our way. Not far from "Lucy", I found another juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse. This one seemed a bit smaller than "Lucy" but still may be a sibling of hers. I named her "Bippy".
We continued on and came to "Southern Cross". She was fairly close to where we'd seen her 2 weeks earlier. A bit further along on the same rock we found "Richie" and "Pierre".
I was down to less than 100 bar because of all the time we'd been looking for "Rosie" so we hurried along towards The Steps. We saw a weedy seadragon along the way. Around half way between "Southern Cross" and the basket star, I found another tiny painted angler. This one was a dark red colour, similar to "Lesley" at The Monument. I called it "Dana".
We continued on past the basket star and found the Miamira magnifica nudibranch laying eggs. We made a quick excursion up above the sand line to find "Robin", the tiny painted angler. The sponge where "Robin" had previously been seen had most of its sand blown away and "Robin" was not there. Sheree managed to find it around a metre away. We then dashed to "Little Andrew" and "Big John" and immediately ascended to 5 metres to begin our safety stop as we headed to the shore. We exited at The Steps.
Buddy
Sheree Papuni
Seas
Rough on top but OK below
Visibility
5-7 metres
Duration
67 minutes
Maximum depth
20.7 m
Average depth
14.9 m
Water temperature
19.1°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEDT
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
Low
1:41am
0.38m
High
8:06am
1.70m
Low
2:35pm
0.36m
High
8:30pm
1.39m
Camera gear
Camera
Nikon D7000
Lens
Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D
Housing
Ikelite 6801.70
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.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Bob"). 19.2 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Bob"). 19.1 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Kel"). 18.7 m.
Velvetfish, Aploactisoma milesii. 20.1 m.
Velvetfish, Aploactisoma milesii. 19.9 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Bob"). 19.3 m.
Juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Lucy"). 19.4 m.
Juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Lucy"). 19.1 m.
Juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Bippy"). 19.3 m.
Juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Bippy"). 19.3 m.
Juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Bippy"). 19.1 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Southern Cross"). 17 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Richie"). 17 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Pierre"). 16.7 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 16.9 m.
Tiny painted angler, Antennarius pictus, ("Dana"). 13 m.
Tiny painted angler, Antennarius pictus, ("Dana"). 13.2 m.
Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.5 m.
Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 12.6 m.
Nudibranch, Miamira magnifica, laying eggs. 13.1 m.
Tiny painted angler, Antennarius pictus, ("Robin"). 10.8 m.
Tiny painted angler, Antennarius pictus, ("Little Andrew"). 11.7 m.
Undescribed angler ("Big John"). 10.8 m.