Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 5 October 2014

Time

5:23pm - 6:25pm

Details

The water was a lot more choppy for the second dive but with the tide being higher it was a bit easier to get in. We jumped in and descended with Kylie and Pete in tow so Sheree could show them the pygmy pipehorse she found on the first dive. We headed out at a little more than 60° which brought us to the end of the wall. It was then a short swim to the pygmy pipehorse.

We then headed on towards The Steps. On the way to Seahorse Rock we found a weedy seadragon although it wasn't the same one we'd seen on the earlier dive. "Rosie" was on her usual rock but had moved to a different sponge in the 4 hours since we'd last seen her.

We got back on our way to The Steps. There were a lot of cuttlefish around, perhaps as it was approaching dusk. We found "Pierre" in the same spot we'd seen him earlier but "Southern Cross" had moved and so took a little while to find.

Continuing on we found a few more weedy seadragons. We kept along the sand line all the way to Big Rock where we stopped to look for pygmy pipehorses. We went a little ways along the top of the reef before we decided to call it a day and headed to the boulders. We did our safety stop over the boulders while heading to the exit. We exited at The Steps which was a little tricky due to the choppy water. Lucky Kylie and Pete were there to help us.

Buddy

Sheree Papuni

Seas

Choppy

Visibility

10 metres

Duration

61 minutes

Maximum depth

22.1 m

Average depth

14.5 m

Water temperature

16.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

6:17am

1.42m

Low

12:09pm

0.41m

High

6:31pm

1.71m

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.

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 15.6 m.
 

Nudibranch, Hypselodoris bennetti. 17.4 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.8 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 21.5 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 21.5 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 20.6 m.
 

Green moray, Gymnothorax prasinus. 21.2 m.
 

Common Sydney octopus, Octopus tetricus. 21.1 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 20.6 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 20.1 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 20.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Pierre"). 17.9 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Southern Cross"). 17.9 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 18.1 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 18.2 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 18.2 m.
 

Common Sydney octopus, Octopus tetricus. 15.8 m.
 

Pygmy leatherjacket, Brachaluteres jacksonianus. 14.2 m.