Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 22 November 2014

Time

7:27am - 8:42am

Details

The forecast was for a north easterly swell so I decided to dive at Bare Island rather than Kurnell. The waves battering the eastern side of the island looked more like a south easterly swell. It was too rough to jump in on the western side of the island so I got in on the northern side as far west as I dared and swam on the surface around to the western side. I descended and swam south to the wall, dropped down the wall and swam north west along the wall until the end.

I started to look for seahorses and found "Della" almost immediately. I then remembered the new male from a month ago that was on the next tier down on an orange sponge and it was still there.

I hunted around for "Tomas" but could not initially find him so I looked further afield where I found a red indianfish near the sand line. On coming back to the seahorse area I spotted a red-fingered angler right near the seahorses.

After a bit more searching I eventually found "Tomas" who was less than a metre from "Della".

I headed north to the shallow wall and followed it north around the island. At the northern tip of the island I slowed down to look for pygmy pipehorses but found none.

I came around the northern side of the island and did my safety stop as I swam. I exited at the "boat ramp".

Seas

Choppy

Visibility

5-10 metres

Duration

74 minutes

Maximum depth

18.3 m

Average depth

13.7 m

Water temperature

20.1°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

2:17am

0.39m

High

8:45am

1.76m

Low

3:17pm

0.31m

High

9:12pm

1.42m

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.

Nudibranchs, Chromodoris tasmaniensis. 16.3 m. These are about to mate or have just mated.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Della"). 16.6 m.
 

Red indianfish, Pataecus fronto. 18 m.
 

Red indianfish, Pataecus fronto. 18.1 m.
 

Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 17.4 m.
 

Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 17.3 m.
 

Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 17.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis. 17.3 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis. 17.3 m.
 

Sea star, Petricia vernicina. 16.3 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Della"). 16.6 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Tomas"). 16.7 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Della"). 16.5 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Tomas"). 16.4 m.
 

Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 17.1 m.
 

Red indianfish, Pataecus fronto. 17.9 m.