Dive Details
Location
Date
Sunday 24 January 2016
Time
8:25am - 9:50am
Details
The purpose of today's dive was to show Bia and Fred the pygmy pipehorses. They'd not seen pygmy pipehorses before so I agreed to show them. The plan was for me to show them the first few and then point them at a rock where there was pygmies and let them find some themselves.
We got in at the ramp as it was a bit round, surface swam for a bit and then descended to the sand. Surprisingly the visibility was around 5 metres even though it was quite rough. We swam along to and past the outboard motor, up over the ledge and along to the top of the slope. We headed down the slope to the send sea tulip rock. I found the female pygmy (IL2015121401) on the top of the rock and pointed her out to Bia and Fred. I then went to the side of the rock and spotted two juveniles: one I'd seen before (IL2015121901) and a new one (IL2016012401). I also pointed them out to Bia and Fred.
We swam down the slope to the white male pygmy (IL2015081403) which I pointed out and I also found the male (IL2016011905) on the edge of the gap. I couldn't find the female.
We continued on to New Pygmy Rock. I spotted the white male (IL2016011901) and the nearby juvenile (IL2016011904) but did not point them out to Bia or Fred but just indicated the general area. They managed to find both of the pygmies. I then spotted the female (IL2016011902) on the lower corner of the rock and again indicated the general area and Bia found her. I then spotted the male (IL2016011903) and pointed him out to Bia and Fred. Kim had mentioned she'd seen a fifth pygmy on this rock so I went looking, finding one on the top corner, a male (IL2016012402). Again I indicated the approximate area and Fred managed to find him. Bia and Fred had to leave at this point but I stayed to look some more. I managed to find a sixth pygmy, a female (IL2016012403) on New Pygmy Rock. With the 3 on the sea tulip rock, the white male and the other male and the 6 on New Pygmy Rock, I had a new record of 11 pygmies on one dive.I headed back up the slope stopping at the white male pygmy hoping to find the female but I could not see her. I then swam to the second sea tulip rock and only saw one juvenile (IL2016012401) and the female. I was hoping to find the male that used to be there but could not see it.
I headed to the top of the slope and along to the exit doing my safety stop along the way. I was pretty happy to have seen 11 pygmy pipehorses. I exited at the ramp.
Buddy
Bia Hoffman, Fred Hoffman
Seas
Rough
Visibility
3 to 5 metres
Duration
84 minutes
Maximum depth
14.7 m
Average depth
11.5 m
Water temperature
20.7°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEDT
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
Low
2:56am
0.42m
High
9:25am
1.84m
Low
4:00pm
0.28m
High
9:58pm
1.40m
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, (IL2015121901). 10.3 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015081403). 13.4 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011905). 13.4 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011902). 14.4 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011901). 14.3 m.
Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011904). 14.3 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011901). 14.1 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011902). 14.3 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011902). 14.4 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011902). 14.5 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012403). 14 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011902). 14.4 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011903). 14.3 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011903). 14.1 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012403). 14.3 m.
Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012401). 10.3 m.
Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012401). 10.2 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121401). 10 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121401). 9.9 m.