Dive at The Steps, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 8 August 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 8 August 2015

Time

10:37am - 11:59am

Details

It was a lot rougher today at Kurnell. I was planning to dive The Monument but as others were going to dive The Steps I thought I'd give it a go.

It was too rough to jump in at the normal entry/exit point but the tide was low enough that I could jump in easily from the outside rock. I descended and swam to the sand line. I turned right and headed through the kelp.

I soon came upon the male weedy seadragon with no appendages on his head (PT2015010102). He's still got eggs. Shortly after I came across the weedy which is mostly missing its first appendage (PT2013121501).

I continued along the sand line until I came to the "Big John"/"Little Andrew" rock and then headed up to find "Di". She was on the same rock but this time was on the pink sea tulips.

I swam past the area where the Miamira magnifica had been but could not see it. I found "Rosie" on the other side of the rock she'd been on yesterday. There was a weedy seadragon (PT2015061401) on the sand line. I eventually found "Noel" who was on pink sea tulips on the rock next to where "Rosie" was.

I headed along the sand line towards The Leap and came across my favourite weedy seadragon with the wavy body (PT2014030901). Just near the basket star I found the weedy with the growth on its snout (PT2014041802).

I moved up the reef to the rock with the pygmy pipehorses. I was only able to find one (IL2015070501). The surge was very strong here which made looking for pygmies very difficult and photographing them almost impossible.

As the surge had been increasing through the dive I decided I would not even attempt to get out at The Steps and would head to The Monument. I had just enough air to make it. As I headed along the sand line to The Steps I saw two of the weedies I had already seen (PT2014041802 & PT2015061401).

I passed The Steps and headed to The Monument. I saw no more weedy seadragons. At The Monument I found a Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranch but the surge made it very difficult to photograph. I had a look for the seahorse others have seen recently at The Monument. I'm pretty sure I was looking on the correct rocks but I couldn't find it.

At the end of the deep wall, I cut up the slope and headed for the shallow wall, swimming along the top of the wall at 5 metres for my safety stop. After 5 minutes I headed south and surfaced out from the flagpoles. I exited on the rocks.

Seas

Very surgy

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

81 minutes

Maximum depth

14.2 m

Average depth

11.1 m

Water temperature

15.4°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

2:32am

1.32m

Low

8:38am

0.51m

High

3:14pm

1.60m

Low

9:53pm

0.56m

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.

Juvenile female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 10.1 m.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 13.1 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Noel"). 12.6 m.

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015070501). 12 m.

Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015070501). 11.8 m.

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.8 m.

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014041802). 13.7 m.

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015061401). 12.9 m.

Nudibranch, Nembrotha purpureolineata. 11.8 m.