Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on 21 June 2014

Dive Details

Location

Date

21 June 2014

Time

10:25am - 11:47am

Details

I was greeted by a beautiful day and calm conditions at The Leap. There was hardly any swell and the water looked clear from the top of the steps. The tide was still low so there was still a bit of a drop even getting in from the low shelf.

I descended and headed towards the sand line at my usual 60° and I arrived just south of the amphitheatre. I headed towards The Steps stopping at the new rock with seahorses. I found "Lucy" immediately but it took me a while to find "Bob" who was hanging on to a sponge right on the edge of the rock. Just past the first seahorses I found my first weedy seadragon of the dive.

I continued on towards The Steps. Behind Seahorse Rock I looked for "Alex", the painted angler, but I was not able to find it. It was not on the rock it has been for the last few weeks and I couldn't not see it in the area at all. I think I checked it quite thoroughly. "Rosie", the pot-bellied seahorse was on her usual rock.

On my way to the next group of seahorses I found a 2nd weedy seadragon. All three seahorses, "Southern Cross", "Pierre" and "Richie" were on their usual rock. "Southern Cross" and "Pierre" were still up the south-eastern end and "Richie" was in his normal area. A little further on I found the 3rd weedy seadragon and then checked out the pineapplefish.

I continued on my way, looking for pygmy pipehorses and anglers but hadn't found any by the time I reached the basket star. Just past the basket star I investigated the rock where the pygmy pipehorse that Di pointed out to me in April and found it almost immediately. It was in some snotty algae but I still managed to get some shots.

I then checked out the sponge covered rocks on the way to the boulders looking for "Big John", the undescribed angler, but didn't find it. I did find a fourth weedy seadragon just before the boulders and then a Günther's butterflyfish which I was surprised to still be around this late in the year, although the water temperature hasn't really dropped yet.

I did my safety stop just past the Plesiastrea colonies and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10-15 metres

Duration

81 minutes

Maximum depth

21.2 m

Average depth

14.9 m

Water temperature

18.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

2:56am

1.49m

Low

9:17am

0.47m

High

3:45pm

1.59m

Low

10:05pm

0.64m

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.