Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Sunday 19 October 2014

Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 19 October 2014

Time

1:25pm - 2:37pm

Details

On my way to The Leap I passed a coupled of divers at The Steps who had just finished a dive and they told me the visibility had only been around 3 metres. The surface water at The Leap looked green and choppy due to the north easterly wind. It looked like it may not be all that good. I was there so I decided to dive anyway and figured that the incoming tide should improve things.

The tide and swell were low enough for me to get in from the low platform, in fact, the water surface was still well below the platform. I surface swam around 10 metres to the south east along the shore. The visibility on the surface was only around 2 metres. I descended to 5 metres and the visibility improved to around 5 metres. I swam at around 60° towards the wall. The deeper I got the better the visibility became and by the time I reached and dropped down the wall the visibility was well over 10 metres, although there was some particulate matter in the water.

I swam along the wall towards The Steps hoping to see the juvenile giant cuttlefish we'd seen last week but I don't think I was far enough south east. At the end of the wall I located the rock where we'd seen "Shirley", the juvenile pot-bellied seahorse, last week and found her pretty quickly. I was relieved she'd made it through the mid-week rough weather. She was on a more secure spot on the rock. I was also able to get a photograph of her with my pointer and so can estimate her body height to be 4 cm and total height around 10 cm.

I swam across to the rock with the pygmy pipehorse from the last couple of weeks and found it just a little lower in the rock from where it had been. I still couldn't find any others in the area.

I continued on to Seahorse Rock. On the way I spied a velvetfish lying on top of one of the rocks. At Seahorse Rock the visibility dropped to around 10 metres but it was still good. When I first checked the rock behind Seahorse Rock for "Rosie" I was a little worried because I did not see here straight away. Eventually I found her hiding between two sponges.

Next stop was the rock with "Southern Cross" and "Pierre". I found "Pierre" first and then "Southern Cross" who was on the move again.

I swam on to Seadragon Alley which had was not very busy last week when we saw only one weedy seadragon. Today I saw two: one which I don't believe I have seen before and the other I have seen previously at least 10 times since March including every dive in the last 4 weeks.

After Seadragon Alley the visibility dropped to less than 10 metres and around 5 metres in places. I followed the sand line along and didn't see anything noteworthy, other than the basket star on its usual sponge. I then swam just up from the sand line all the way to the boulders, hitting them around the Plesiastrea colonies. I swam on a little and did my safety stop. Here the visibility was over 5 metres and I could see down to the sand line with ease. I could not see the water surface but that was because the top couple of metres were soup. After my safety stop I exited at The Steps.

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

5-15 metres

Duration

71 minutes

Maximum depth

21.2 m

Average depth

15.0 m

Water temperature

17.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

6:10am

1.30m

Low

12:01pm

0.63m

High

6:12pm

1.43m

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.

Pygmy leatherjacket, Brachaluteres jacksonianus. 13 m.

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 19.8 m.

Juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Shirley"). 20.6 m.

Juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Shirley"), with pointer showing scale. The lines are 5 cm apart which makes her body height around 4 cm and a total height with tail unfurled of around 10 cm. 20.6 m.