Dive Details
Location
Date
Sunday 24 January 2016
Time
10:20am - 11:32am
Details
After I got out from my dive with Bia and Fred, Vicki, Peter and John were getting ready for a dive so I decided to join them. My only remaining tank with air was the 10.5L and it only had 215 bar. As John was diving with an 11.1L alloy tank, It was going to be fine.
It was still a bit rough to the north of the island so we got in at the ramp. We surface swam for a while before descending to the sand. The visibility was a little worse than the earlier dive but it was still OK. We swam past the outboard motor, over the ledge and along to the top of the slope. We went down the slope to the second sea tulip rock. I pointed out the female pygmy pipehorse ((IL2015121401)) on the top of the rock but the surge made photography quite difficult. I could only find the one juvenile (IL2016012401) on the lower side of the rock.
We continued down the slope and stopped at the white male pygmy pipehorse (IL2015081403) briefly. I spotted one in the gap which turned out to be a female (IL2016012404) (there was a male there previously).
We swam on to New Pygmy Rock. I was able to locate all 6 pygmy pipehorses again: the white male (IL2016011901), the juvenile (IL2016011904), the female low down on the rock (IL2016011902), the male near her (IL2016011903) and the pair near the top (IL2016012402 & IL2016012403). Vicki and Peter left us at this point.
We slowly made our way back. John found a little pink male pygmy pipehorse (IL2016012405) on the rock between New Pygmy Rock and the bottom of the slope. We stopped the white male (IL2015081403) and the female in the gap.
We swam up the slope to the second sea tulip rock and saw the two pygmy pipehorses there before heading to the top of the slope and then along to the exit doing our safety stop along the way. We exited at the ramp.
Buddy
John McKeon, Vicki Swinnerton, Peter Jaques
Seas
Right
Visibility
3 to 5 metres
Duration
72 minutes
Maximum depth
14.5 m
Average depth
11.1 m
Water temperature
20.8°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.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015121401). 9.8 m.
Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012401). 10 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012404). 13.1 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011902). 14.3 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011903). 14.1 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012403). 13.7 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011901). 14.2 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012402). 13.8 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012405). 13.8 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015081403). 12.9 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012404). 13.2 m.
Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016012401). 10 m.