Dive Details

Location

Date

Thursday 2 April 2015

Time

8:14pm - 9:29pm

Details

Club dive with Scubathlon. We got in on the western side of the island and swam on the surface south to get closer to the deep wall. We descended and headed south west to the wall. We dropped down the wall and then followed it to the north west.

Before we got to the seahorses we saw some playful calamari squid, a red indianfish, a lionfish and a basket star that was just starting to open. Right near the seahorses we saw a large boarfish that was somewhat startled by the lights.

At the seahorses we were only able to find "Della". "Tomas" was not visible but I'm sure he was around.

We followed the reef to the west for a while before heading north across the sand where we saw a eastern spiny gurnard.

Not long after we hit the shallow reef I spotted a small pygmy pipehorse. While I was photographing it the others got away from me. I managed to catch them up again but a couple of divers were running low on air so Tomas took the group back the direct route and I followed the wall around to the west, then north past the caves and east up the slope. As I came along the northern side of the island I found a small school of striped catfish as well as a gastropod that I don't recognise. It looked like a sponge but it was crawling across the sand.

I exited at the ramp.

Buddy

Tomas

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 metres

Duration

74 minutes

Maximum depth

18.8 m

Average depth

12.8 m

Water temperature

21.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

1:52am

0.55m

High

8:00am

1.56m

Low

2:17pm

0.46m

High

8:30pm

1.52m

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.

Fiddler ray, Trygonrrhina fasciata. 6.6 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 6.4 m.
 

Southern calamari squid, Sepioteuthis australis. 18.4 m.
 

Southern calamari squid, Sepioteuthis australis. 18.4 m.
 

Southern calamari squid, Sepioteuthis australis. 18.4 m.
 

Red indianfish, Pataecus fronto. 18.3 m.
 

Eastern frogfish, Batrachomoeus dubius. 18.3 m.
 

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 17.1 m.
 

Dwarf lionfish, Dendrochirus brachypterus. 17.7 m.
 

Peacock sole, Pardachirus hedleyi. 18.1 m.
 

Red hairy hermit crab, Dardanus lagopodes. 18.1 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Della"). 16.9 m.
 

Eastern spiny gurnard, Lepidotrigla pleuracanthica. 15.3 m.
 

Eastern spiny gurnard, Lepidotrigla pleuracanthica. 15.4 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 11.3 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 11.3 m.
 

Pleurobranch, Pleurobranchus peroni. 12.3 m.
 

Pleurobranch, Pleurobranchus peroni. 13.2 m.
 

Snail, Nassarius glans. 9.5 m.
 

Striped catfish, Plotosus lineatus. 6.5 m.
 

Flathead, Platycephalus sp. 4.7 m.
 

Flathead, Platycephalus sp. 4.7 m.
 

Gastropod. 3.5 m.