Dive at Bare Island, La Perouse, NSW on Wednesday 4 March 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Time

7:55pm - 9:08pm

Details

Night dive with Scubathlon. We got in at the point on the mainland to the north west of the island and swam on the surface out to the west of the island. We descended to the bottom and headed south until we hit the second reef. We turned west and headed around the reef.

Tomas pointed out a red indianfish although I didn't get any photos of it because there was too much debris kicked up. We followed the reef around to the south and then headed east. I came across a fiddler ray and then a red indianfish.

Tomas found the large female striped angler that has been around at Bare Island. She seems to have moved a fair way. I found another red indianfish.

As we continued east, Tomas pointed out a pink pygmy pipehorse and I immediately saw a yellow one (photo below) around 10cm away from it. I managed to get photos of the yellow one but the pink one disappeared before I got a chance to photograph it. One of the divers was running low on air so the others moved off and left me with the pygmy pipehorse.

I continued east and came across a smaller striped angler actually swimming in the water column. I think it might be the small male we'd seen previously with the large female. Shortly further on I spied a pink pygmy pipehorse (photos below). On the same rock I found a brown one (no decent photo) and a white one (photo below). Further on again I spotted another pink pygmy pipehorse. That made 6 on the one dive, 5 of which I'd spotted myself. They seem to be easier to find on a night dive.

I kept on heading towards the exit looking carefully at each rock for more pygmies but found none. As I swam over the sand next to the boulders and 10-15 metres before the outboard motor I saw a striped pyjama squid in the sand. Could this dive get any better?

Finally, in the shallows, I saw a brown sabretooth blenny in a shell. I got out on the rocks on the north of the island.

Buddy

Tomas and Scubathlon

Seas

Calm

Visibility

5 metres

Duration

72 minutes

Maximum depth

18.8 m

Average depth

13.2 m

Water temperature

20.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

2:13am

0.51m

High

8:31am

1.64m

Low

2:58pm

0.41m

High

9:00pm

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.