Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Time

11:18am - 12:47pm

Details

The bay was even calmer today so we decided to start around the corner on the western side of the island. I was hoping to find the yellow pot-bellied seahorse that Ben and I had seen just after the storm. Kim got in near the ramp and I got in just to the east of the pool. It was actually calm enough to get in on the western side of the wall but I was carrying a pony bottle slung under my left arm and I wasn't sure how difficult it would be. We swam on the surface around the corner to the western side of the island before descending.

We headed in a south-westerly direction until we reached around 12 metres on one of the sponge gardens. We then headed north, north west. Kim found a red indianfish.

We followed the reef around to the corner and then headed north until we reached the corner near the caves. Here I found a couple of Flabellina rubrolineata nudibranchs on hydroids. These were probably the same two from a couple of weeks ago.

We continued around the corner and up the slope. I found a juvenile pygmy pipehorse in the same location as yesterday, probably the same one.

Further up the slope I looked on the rocks with the pink sea tulips for the other juvenile pygmy but still couldn't find it.

I caught up with Kim at the top of the slope and we followed the boulders to the exit. We got out at the ramp.

Buddy

Kim Dinh

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 metres

Duration

88 minutes

Maximum depth

15.1 m

Average depth

11.1 m

Water temperature

18.3°C

                                       

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

3:57am

0.32m

High

9:59am

1.45m

Low

3:37pm

0.53m

High

10:04pm

1.91m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D300

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6812.3

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.


Common Sydney octopus, Octopus tetricus. 11.9 m.
 

Red indianfish, Pataecus fronto. 12.2 m.
 

Eastern smooth boxfish, Anoplocapros inermis. 12.8 m.
 

Nudibranch, Flabellina poenicia. 11.7 m.
 

Nudibranch, Flabellina poenicia. 11.6 m.
 

Dwarf lionfish., Dendrochirus brachypterus. 14.3 m.
 

Nudibranch, Flabellina rubrolineata. 14.1 m.
 

Nudibranchs, Flabellina rubrolineata. 14.2 m.
 

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 10.2 m.
 

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 10.3 m.
 

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 10.3 m.
 

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 10.2 m.