Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 1 August 2015

Time

10:27am - 12:01pm

Details

As I did last weekend, I enjoyed my dive from The Leap so much I did a second dive. Conditions weren't going to be as good as it was an outgoing tide but they were going to be more than good enough for an enjoyable dive.

I jumped in at The Steps and descended to the sand line and kelp. I headed to the right and swam through the clumps of kelp. I did not see and weedy seadragons here.

Once I got to the rock where we first saw "Big John", the orange red-fingered angler, and "Little Andrew", the orange painted angler, I headed up from the sand line to look for "Di". She was still hiding in to the pale green finger sponge.

I then had a good look for the Miamira magnifica nudibranch but still could not find it. "Rosie" was on the same rock as the earlier dive.

I headed to the sand line and past the basket star. Not far past the basket star I saw the weedy seadragon I'd first seen last weekend (PT2015072501).

I swam to the rock with the pygmy pipehorses but initially could only find one. I checked out the adjacent rock and found the one there. I came back to the first rock and eventually found the second pygmy. It had moved quite a bit since the first dive.

I headed back past the basket star, "Rosie" and "Di" and still couldn't find the M. magnifica nudibranch. I swam to the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

93 minutes

Maximum depth

15.1 m

Average depth

11.4 m

Water temperature

14.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

2:47am

0.18m

High

8:46am

1.52m

Low

2:31pm

0.33m

High

9:00pm

2.00m

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.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 10.5 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 11.6 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 12.7 m.
 

Eastern frogfish, Batrachomoeus dubius. 13.3 m.
 

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 13.3 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015070501). 12.4 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015070501). 12.3 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015070501). 12.2 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072602) with my finger for scale. 12.9 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072602). 12.9 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 12.1 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 12.2 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015070501). 12.2 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072602). 12.8 m.
 

Sea hare, Elysia ornata. 12.9 m.
 

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072602). 12.7 m.
 

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.9 m.
 

Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 13.8 m.
 

Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 13.9 m.
 

Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 13.8 m.
 

Eastern frogfish, Batrachomoeus dubius. 13.2 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 12.2 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 10 m.