Dive Details
Location
Date
Thursday 24 December 2015
Time
12:27pm - 1:48pm
Details
The tide was pretty low when I jumped in and I had to walk out over the rocks. As I descended I was starting to get my camera ready when I realised the port cover was missing. I surfaced and went back to the entry point to look for it only to remember than I'd left it at home. I waded back out, descended to the sand line. Visibility was only 3 to 5 metres with a lot of crap in the water and lots of surge.
I swam towards The Leap. At the rock with the white honeycomb sponge I headed up from the sand line to the first couple of seahorses. Both "Di" and "Mikhail" were on the rock. "Di" was in the green finger sponge and "Mikhail" in the pink sea tulips.
I headed back to the sand line and followed it to Diversity Rock where I found "Arnold" on the side of the rock behind Diversity Rock. He often seems to go there when the seas are rough. I found "Rosie" on the rock above the rock to the left of Diversity Rock. There was a male weedy seadragon (PT2015061401) with eggs on the sand in front of Diversity Rock. The angler was no longer on the rock to the left of Diversity Rock and I could not see "Daniel" or "Noel".
I headed along the sand line towards the basket star and stopped at the rock just before it which has pygmy pipehorses. I was able to find the male (IL2015121501) but not the female (IL2015122201) that I'd found on Tuesday.
I continued past the basket star which was partially open and headed up the reef to the other pygmy pipehorses. This time I found the male (IL2015121201) straight away and had to search for the female (IL2015072601) who I eventually found on the side of the rock.
I headed back to the sand line and then swam towards Big Rock, finding a green turtle asleep in amongst the rocks. I took a wide berth around it so as not to wake it. When I got to big rock I turned and headed back along the sand line towards The Steps. I avoided the turtle again to not disturb it. Before I got to the basket star I found a female weedy seadragon (PT2014092001) at the sand line.
After the basket star I had another look for the female pygmy pipehorse but did not find it. I swam on to Diversity Rock and found the angler on the rock above the rock to the left of Diversity Rock. It was near "Rosie". I then managed to find "Daniel" low down on Diversity Rock and "Noel" on the rock to the right.
I swam back to the other seahorses before swimming on to the boulders, doing my safety stop and exiting at The Steps.
Seas
Surgy
Visibility
3 to 5 metres
Duration
78 minutes
Maximum depth
14.5 m
Average depth
11.0 m
Water temperature
19.5°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEDT
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
Low
1:33am
0.36m
High
8:05am
1.86m
Low
2:44pm
0.26m
High
8:40pm
1.41m
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.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 9.8 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 9.6 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Arnold"). 12 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 11.7 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121501). 12.4 m.
Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.7 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 11.6 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 11.7 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121201). 11.5 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121201). 11.6 m.
Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 12.7 m.
Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus, ("Kim"). 11.5 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Daniel") with clingfish. 12.8 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Noel"). 12.1 m.
Nudibranch, Nembrotha purpureolineata. 11.5 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 9.5 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 9.7 m.