Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 6 March 2015

Time

8:41am - 9:46am

Details

The Leap did not look all that good from the top of the steps. It was choppy, the swell was quite large and the water looked murky. We decided to go ahead with the dive anyway.

We jumped in and when everyone was ready, we descended and I headed at 60° thinking everyone was following me. The visibility was poor, perhaps 3 metres at best and I arrived at the flat sponge covered rock next to Pygmy Rock. PJ was the only one with me.

I had a look at Pygmy Rock and found a pygmy pipehorse almost straight away. It was difficult to photograph with the surge and all the muck in the water. PJ had to leave as he'd lost around 20 bar on the surface. I looked around a bit more and found a tiny pink juvenile pygmy pipehorse on the top of Pygmy Rock. This little thing was 10-15mm long.

I left Pygmy Rock and headed towards Seahorse Rock. With the poor visibility it was difficult to navigate as landmarks were only visible once I was on top of them. I eventually made it to Seahorse Rock and checked the rock behind and found both "Rosie" and "Pierre". They were pretty much in the same spots they'd been on Tuesday.

I continued on and navigation got even more difficult with the visibility dropping to only 2 metres. I came across a weedy seadragon just before Seadragon Alley. I was quite surprised to find it given the poor visibility. This was a male I first saw in May 2014 and I last saw on 1st March 2015.

I swam through Seadragon Alley and surprised myself again finding another weedy. This was another male first seen in September 2014 and last seen on 1st March 2015.

At the end of Seadragon Alley I headed up to the top of the reef and pottered along there for a while before swimming to the boulders and doing my safety stop as I swam to the Plesiastrea colonies. After completing my safety stop I exited at The Steps.

Buddy

FDC

Seas

Choppy

Visibility

2-5 metres

Duration

64 minutes

Maximum depth

22.5 m

Average depth

16.2 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

3:25am

0.45m

High

9:41am

1.65m

Low

3:58pm

0.39m

High

10:04pm

1.51m

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.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.9 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.7 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.7 m.
 

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.6 m.
 

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.5 m.
 

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 21.5 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 20.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Pierre"). 20.8 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Pierre"). 20.5 m.