Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 7 September 2015

Time

10:46am - 12:07pm

Details

Second dive with Sydney Tasman Divers on Bent.

Dan and I jumped in and headed down the anchor line. Dan secured the anchor in the rocks and we headed along the reef to the south. I was on the lookout for seahorses and red indianfish but didn't see either.

I spent a lot of time on Seahorse Rock looking for "Francis", the male seahorse I'd seen on my last trip to Henry Head or the female that had given him the eggs. I found neither.

We headed into deeper water along the sand line in the hope of finding some weedy seadragons. We had to swim quite some way before we finally found one. There are usually quite a few so I'm not sure where they were.

We turned and headed back. I stopped at Seahorse Rock again but still couldn't find any seahorses. Dan was getting a bit cold and his computer was not working so he headed back to the boat. I continued my seahorse search. I checked adjacent rocks getting further away from Seahorse Rock. Eventually, I found a male seahorse on a rock right near the edge of the sand line. At first I thought it was a new seahorse but on checking the photographs I confirmed it was "Frances". He was still quite pregnant. I looked some more in the are for a female but found none.

Eventually, Joe and Linda came by so I showed them "Frances" and then headed back to the boat, doing my safety stop on the anchor line.

Buddy

Daniel Pritchard

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

81 minutes

Maximum depth

19.0 m

Average depth

13.6 m

Water temperature

16.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

3:38am

1.19m

Low

9:19am

0.60m

High

3:56pm

1.55m

Low

10:48pm

0.51m

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.

Feather star, Ptilometra australis. 14.8 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 18.6 m.
 

Feather star, Ptilometra australis. 15.1 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, (Francis). 15.1 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, (Francis). 15.2 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, (Francis). 14.9 m.
 

Common Sydney octopus, Octopus tetricus. 15.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, (Francis). 15.1 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, (Francis). 15.2 m.
 

Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 13.3 m.