Dive Details
Location
Date
Sunday 20 September 2015
Time
8:12am - 9:32am
Details
I met a fellow diver named Greg in the car park at Bare Island. He didn't have a buddy and so he tagged along with me. I wanted to have another look for the seahorses that have moved since the super storm. Someone saw them recently further along the reef so I know they are still around.
We were going to get in on the western side of the island but the occasional large set of waves coming in convinced us that getting in at the swimming pool was safer. We surface swam around to the western side before descending. The visibility was only around 5 metres. We headed at around 240° hoping to end up right where the seahorses used to be but we ended up to the east at the end of the wall. No matter, it was only a short swim to their location. The visibility here was around 8 metres.
I was mindful that Greg started the dive with 190 bar and wanted to make sure we'd have time to get back around the island. We moved steadily along the reef looking for the seahorses but found none. We went further west than I normally go before turning north to pick up the shallow wall. We then headed west, north west and finally north to get to the caves.
We came on the isolated rock on the sand in front of the caves where Kim had found a juvenile pygmy 12 days ago. I had a quick look and found it (IL2015090801) almost immediately.
We continued around the corner and the Ardeadoris rubroannulata nudibranch was in its usual spot. A little further along we came to the rock with the two white pygmy pipehorses, the male (IL2015081403) and female (IL2015081402) were right next to each other. While I was there, I noticed the pink male (IL2015073102) on the rock in front. We hadn't seen it last time and Kim hadn't seen him for some time.
We swam up the slope past Pygmy Rock and I was casually looking for pygmies along the way. We stopped at the rock above Pygmy Rock so I could look for the pygmy (IL2015073104) we'd seen previously and miraculously I found it.
We then went to the 3rd rock with pink sea tulips and I found the pink female (IL2015073101). After this we swam to the top of the slope and I looked for the bouncy female pygmy pipehorse (IL2015081401) and found her on one of the 4 rocks she bounces between. At this point Greg was running low on air so he waved goodbye and headed for the exit.
I slowly made my way to the exit doing my safety stop along the way and stopped to take photos of the red-lined bubbles snails in the shallows. I exited just to the west of the ramp.
Buddy
Greg
Seas
Slight
Visibility
5 to 8 metres
Duration
80 minutes
Maximum depth
16.7 m
Average depth
10.5 m
Water temperature
17.4°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEST
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
High
12:12am
1.25m
Low
6:06am
0.58m
High
12:39pm
1.47m
Low
7:15pm
0.59m
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 Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015090801). 13.2 m.
Nudibranch, Ardeadoris rubroannulata. 13 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015073102). 12.6 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015081403). 12.4 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015081402). 12.5 m.
Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015073104). 10.2 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015073101). 10 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015081401). 8 m.
Painted stinkfish, Eocallionymus papilio. 7.8 m.
Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 6.1 m.
Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 6.2 m.
Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 5.9 m.
Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 5.8 m.
Red-lined bubble snail, Bullina lineata. 1 m.
Red-lined bubble snail, Bullina lineata. 1 m.