Dive Details

Location

Date

23 February, 2014

Time

10:35am - 11:45am

Details

Botany Bay was a lot rougher today than it had been on Friday but as it was a southerly swell, the entrace at The Leap was not too rough. We jumped in, descended and swam to the sand line. The visibility was surprisingly good at 8 to 10 metres. Once at the sand line we swam slowly towards The Steps. I was looking very carefully for "Alex", the painted angler that George found on Friday. I'm pretty sure I located the correct rock and the sponge it was on, but couldn't see it. I probably should have checked more thoroughly around that rock.

At the rock behind Seahorse Rock we found "Bob" and "Rosie", the pot-bellied seahorses. I searched the surrounding area for "Eddie" and "Lucy" but found neither.

We continued on our way and found "Southern Cross", "Richie" and "Pierre" in their usual location. I searched for a fourth seahorse but couldn't find it. We did find two reaper cuttlefish, the usual tiny one plus a larger one.

We swam on to Big Rock where I had a quick look for pygmy pipehorses without success. On from Big Rock I managed to find one of the Miamira magnifica nudibranchs.

We swam passed the basket star that looked like it had either recently opened or was about to open. We then cut across the top of the reef looking for anglers. At the last rock I found "Big John", the orange form undescribed angler that I hadn't seen since 4 January. It is good to know it is still around.

We swam to the boulders and did our safety stop by the encrusting Plesiastrea colonies. We exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Sally Glen

Seas

Choppy

Visibility

8-10 metres

Duration

69 minutes

Maximum depth

20.6 m

Average depth

14.5 m

Water temperature

19.3°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

2:58am

1.51m

Low

9:35am

0.57m

High

3:29pm

1.22m

Low

9:24pm

0.57m

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.

Dwarf lionfish, Dendrochirus brachypterus. 20.4 m.
 

Red rock cod, Scorpaena cardinalis. 19.8 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Bob"). 19.4 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 19.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Riche"). 17.2 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Southern Cross"). 17 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Pierre"). 17 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 17.5 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 17.7 m.
 

Red rock cod, Scorpaena cardinalis. 17.8 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 16.7 m.
 

Nudibranch, Miamira magnifica. 11.1 m.
 

Nudibranch, Miamira magnifica. 11 m.
 

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.6 m.
 

Undescribed angler ("Big John"). 10.6 m.
 

Undescribed angler ("Big John"). 10.7 m.
 

Undescribed angler ("Big John"). 10.5 m.