Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 15 August 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 15 August 2015

Time

7:35am - 9:09am

Details

I could see no evidence of the Kurnell sewage spill from yesterday at either The Steps or The Leap so I figured it was safe to dive. It was only an hour before high tide but the high tide was not going to be all that high. I probably could have got in from the low shelf but it was easy enough sliding down the wall. I didn't stay on the surface long at all, mindful of the possible sewage and headed to the sand line at around 60°.

I arrived to the south east of the amphitheatre and Pygmy Rock. Visibility was around 15 metres. I spotted a weedy seadragon (PT2014123001) on the sand. I seem to see this weedy every few weeks.

I searched the low rocks on the sand before Pygmy Rock for pygmies but found none. I also looked at Pygmy Rock for 5 or so minutes and found none there.

I had a look around the amphitheatre for weedy seadragons but didn't see any. I continued on to Seadragon Alley passing Seahorse Rock on the way. I saw no seahorses. The next weedy seadragons I saw were two just before the start of Seadragon Alley. One was a male (PT2014051701) with the remnants of eggs. It had been almost 2 months since I last saw him. The other (PT2013122201) I think maybe a female as I have never seen it with eggs.

I saw three weedies in Seadragon Alley, a male (PT2014030803), a female (PT2015011102), and a juvenile (PT2015050901).

I continued along the sand line after the end of Seadragon Alley and came across a male weedy seadragon (PT2014091301) with eggs near the base of Big Rock.

I headed up the reef to the rock with the two pygmy pipehorses (IL2015079501 and IL2015072601) and found them both attached to the same alga. This would have made for some great photographs if not for the surge which made photography very difficult and I found it hard to get both pygmies in the same shot.

I went back to the sand line and swam past the basket star to "Rosie"'s location. I found her immediately but could not find "Noel". I didn't have a lot of time to search because I had spent so much time at the start of the dive looking for pygmies. As he's pregnant I suspect he's hiding and there are a lot of hiding places in that area.

Just past "Rosie" I found a Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranch. I sometimes see these at The Monument but I think this is the first time I have seen one at The Steps.

I swam on to "Di" and found her on the same rock as before but on a different sponge.

From here I swam to the boulders and did my safety stop while swimming to the exit. I was hoping for a clean exit as I didn't want to be hanging around on the surface because of the potential sewage but it took me a few goes to get out. I didn't get sick though so I assume the water was clean.

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

5 to 15 metres

Duration

91 minutes

Maximum depth

22.4 m

Average depth

15.3 m

Water temperature

15.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

2:45am

0.36m

High

8:45am

1.41m

Low

2:28pm

0.47m

High

8:50pm

1.73m

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.