Dive at The Steps, Kurnell, NSW on Tuesday 17 November 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Time

11:24am - 12:57pm

Details

The water surface at The Steps was quite choppy from the wind but there was almost no swell. I jumped in at the surface water was quite murky with only a few metres of visibility. I descended and once I got to 7 or 8 metres the water cleared up a lot. At the sand line the visibility was around 15 metres.

I stayed amongst the rocks and kelp looking for weedy seadragons and seahorses. I swam towards The Leap. I came to the rock where "Di", the pot-bellied seahorse has been but could not find her again. She was there on Saturday but gone again today.

I continued on to Diversity Rock. Along the way I came on a large juvenile weedy (PT2015101001) in much the same place I had seen in last time. It was also very difficult to photograph as it kept turning away, as it did last time.

I arrived at Diversity Rock and found "Noel" and "Arnold" in the sponges on the rock behind. The angler was on the next rock as was the large Miamira magnifica. I had to look for some time to find the male pygmy pipehorse (IL2015102401) as it was hiding in the Carijoa. I couldn't find the female pygmy nor "Rosie". I also looked around the nearby large rock for "Greg" and could not find him either.

I swam on just up from the sand line past the basket star and found a weedy (PT2014092001) just behind the basket star. It was in the same spot I'd last seen it. At the other rock with pygmies I found both the female (IL2015072601) and the male (IL2015092701) without much trouble at all.

I headed back along the reef towards Diversity Rock and I spotted another weedy (PT2015061401) on the sand just past the basket star. This was a male but he had no eggs.

Back at Diversity Rock I looked again for "Rosie" and "Greg". While I was looking, Noel and Di (the real people not the seahorse) swam up. What a treat that was. I was able to show them the seahorses, pygmy, angler and large Miramira magnifica. Di showed me the small M. magnifica on the high rock to the left of Diversity Rock. While I was looking at it I noticed "Rosie" on the same rock.

I waved Noel and Di goodbye and headed back to "Di's" rock (the seahorse not the person) for one more look, before swimming on to the boulders, doing my safety stop and exiting at The Steps.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

92 minutes

Maximum depth

14.7 m

Average depth

11.8 m

Water temperature

19.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

12:43am

1.28m

Low

6:17am

0.58m

High

12:45pm

1.65m

Low

7:33pm

0.41m

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.