Dive at Bare Island, La Perouse, NSW on Friday 14 August 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 14 August 2015

Time

11:15am - 12:56pm

Details

Kim and I agreed she'd take me straight to the two white pygmy pipehorses she's been seeing lately and then we'd look for more pygmy pipehorses on the way back.

We jumped in on the northern side of the island just to the west of the ramp, surface swam out towards the point and then descended to the sand. The visibility was around 15 metres - the best I have seen at Bare Island for a long time.

We swam along the sand to the outboard motor and then went up over the ledge to the left. We swam over the sand next to the boulders heading for the slope. While I wasn't specifically looking for pygmies along the way, as I swam over a rock I noticed a pygmy lift off from the rock and drop down on another part of the rock. I had to stop and take a few photos.

We headed down the slope and went almost to the corner where Kim showed me the two white pygmy pipehorses and also a pink one. They were next to a sponge and difficult to photograph.

We turned and headed back up the slope. Kim went a bit faster than me so we were each on our own. I found pygmy pipehorse on the rock above Pygmy Rock. This is the same location we have seen a pygmy for a few months. I suspect it might be the same one.

I then looked in the area where we'd seen two pygmies previously on one of the pink sea tulip rocks. I found one of them almost immediately but could not find the second one.

I got to the top of the slope and swam to the rock I'd seen the pygmy on the way down. It was still there and still bouncing up off the rock.

I swam to the exit while doing my safety stop and got out where we got in. Kim was waiting for me.

Buddy

Kim Dinh

Seas

Some surge

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

101 minutes

Maximum depth

13.7 m

Average depth

9.8 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.

Low

2:11am

0.36m

High

8:09am

1.38m

Low

1:50pm

0.48m

High

8:15pm

1.75m

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.