Dive at The Steps, Kurnell, NSW on Tuesday 24 November 2015

Dive Details

Location

Date

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Time

1:03pm - 2:14pm

Details

As I was getting out of the water from the previous dive I met a couple from the US who were keen to see a weedy seadragon. They only had time for a single dive in Sydney before heading back to the US and had been told that Kurnell was the best place to see them. I don't need much encouragement to go for a dive, especially at Kurnell so I agree to show them a weedy seadragon or two, plus some other interesting critters.

We jumped in at The Steps, descended and headed towards The Monument. It was just before low tide so the visibility was not ideal however it was good enough for finding weedies. We headed through the kelp to the sand line and followed the sand line for 10 minutes or so before we came on a large juvenile weedy (PT2015112401). This was one I had not seen before.

We continued on towards The Monument for another 5 minutes hoping to see the male with eggs I'd seen on the previous dive. We didn't see it so we turned and headed back to The Steps. As we got close to The Steps we saw another weedy. This was one that was missing the first head appendage (PT2014012602).

We passed The Steps and headed on towards The Leap. I came across a small school of striped catfish and pointed them out to Kathy and Larry. Shortly after we found another weedy (PT2015101001) and then a fourth one (PT2015072501). Kathy and Larry are very lucky to have seen 4 weedy seadragons on their one and only dive in Sydney.

We stopped at Diversity Rock. I was only able to find "Noel" and "Arnold". I don't know where "Rosie" and "Daniel" had gone since my earlier dive. I also pointed out the angler and the male pygmy pipehorse (IL2015102401). While looking for "Rosie" I found the small Miamira magnifica. At this point my camera started to play up. The SD card became unseated. After switching the camera off and on a few times I was able to take a few more photos.

It was time to end the dive so we headed for the boulders, passing the shallow basket star on the way. We did our safety stop while swimming to the exit and got out at The Steps.

I think Kathy and Larry enjoyed the dive and got to see some critters that some regular Sydney divers have never seen.

Buddy

Kathy and Larry Collison

Seas

Slight

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

71 minutes

Maximum depth

13.0 m

Average depth

9.8 m

Water temperature

20.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

1:06am

0.26m

High

7:30am

1.79m

Low

1:55pm

0.26m

High

7:57pm

1.55m

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.