Dive Details
Location
Date
Tuesday 2 February 2016
Time
11:27am - 1:05pm
Details
Dive with Mike Scotland, Eddie Ivers and Bill, hoping to find the ornate ghostpipefish I'd found yesterday.
Conditions were great at The Leap. It was even better than yesterday. The surface water looked a bit green but it augured well for a good dive. We all jumped in from the low platform and swam almost due north to the sand line to cut the corner and give us more time later in the dive. We hit the sand line before 20 metres or so before Seahorse Rock.
Before we got to Seahorse Rock I found a weedy seadragon (PT2015081601). It was the large juvenile I'd first seen south of The Leap Wall and I often found between Seahorse Rock and Southern Cross Rock. At Seahorse Rock we found the other large juvenile (PT2015062401) that has been between Seahorse Rock and Southern Cross Rock.
Between Seahorse Rock and Southern Cross Rock Mike found a bent stick pipefish out on one of the flat rocks. It was just sitting there. Just after Southern Cross Rock we found the juvenile weedy that I first saw on 26 January.
In Seadragon Alley we saw 3 weedy seadragons: the female with the cut first appendage (PT2013122201), a male with lots of eggs (PT2014030803), and a weedy seadragon of undetermined sex (PT2015122201).
Just after Seadragon Alley I started to look for the ornate ghostpipefish. I came to the area I thought I'd seen it yesterday and indicated to Eddie that it should be nearby and then immediately saw it. I was thrilled to find it again and as it hadn't moved much we might be able to see it again
While I was looking for the ghostpipefish, Eddie found a rock flathead partially hiding in the kelp. After photographing the ghostpipefish we had a look at the rock flathead. I moved the kelp so Eddie could get a photograph only to find a second larger rock flathead. The two of them were staying together. Eddie looked around the area to see if there was a second ghostpipefish nearby and found a dwarf lionfish.
We continued on and found three more weedy seadragons: the male with old eggs (PT2016020102) Mike and I had seen yesterday, an adult I first saw as a juvenile (PT2015051001) in May, and the female with the deformed body (PT2014030901).
We swam past the basket star and on to Diversity Rock. None of the seahorses were on Diversity Rock. "Daniel" was down low on the rock behind Diversity Rock and "Rosie" and "Arnold" were in the sponges on that same rock. I believe "Arnold" was courting "Rosie" as he had his pouch inflated. We couldn't find "Noel". The angler was in the middle of the rock behind Diversity Rock and the two pygmy pipehorses (IL2015123101 & 2016011002) were in the Carijoa colonies.
We swam on to the other seahorses and found "Di" and "Mikhail" together again in the sea tulips. We swam on to the boulders where Mike found a Ardeadoris rubroannulata nudibranch like the one we've seen a few times at Bare Island. We did our safety stop and exited at The Steps.
Buddy
Mike Scotland, Eddie Ivers, Bill
Duration
97 minutes
Maximum depth
21.2 m
Average depth
14.1 m
Water temperature
19.6°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEDT
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
High
3:47am
1.39m
Low
10:14am
0.72m
High
3:58pm
1.19m
Low
10:06pm
0.63m
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.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015081601). 21 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015062401). 20.2 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015062401). 20.4 m.
Bent stick pipefish, Trachyrhamphus bicoarctatus. 18.7 m.
Bent stick pipefish, Trachyrhamphus bicoarctatus. 18.6 m.
Juvenile weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2016011701). 18 m.
Juvenile weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2016011701). 18.1 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2013122201). 17 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2013122201). 17.1 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030803). 17.1 m.
Reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 17.2 m.
Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 16.2 m.
Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 16.3 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015122201). 16.5 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015122201). 16.6 m.
Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 15 m.
Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 14.9 m.
Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 14.9 m.
Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 14.8 m.
Rock flathead, Thysanophrys cirronasus. 14.2 m.
Rock flathead, Thysanophrys cirronasus. 14.2 m.
Rock flathead, Thysanophrys cirronasus. 14.2 m.
Rock flathead, Thysanophrys cirronasus. 14.2 m.
Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 15 m.
Dwarf lionfish, Dendrochirus brachypterus. 14.4 m.
Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 15 m.
Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 14.9 m.
Rock flathead, Thysanophrys cirronasus. 15.2 m.
Rock flathead, Thysanophrys cirronasus. 15.1 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2016020102). 15 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2016020102). 15 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015051001). 14.6 m.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030901). 14.3 m.
Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.9 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Daniel"). 13 m.
Red-fingered angler, Porophryne erythrodactylus, ("Kim"). 12.2 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Arnold"). 12.2 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 12.2 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011002). 12.4 m.
Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015123101). 12.4 m.
Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011002). 12.4 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Arnold"). 12.5 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 12.3 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 10.4 m.
Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 10.3 m.
Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 10.5 m.
Pot-bellied seahorses, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di", "Mikhail" ). 10.5 m.
Pot-bellied seahorses, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di", "Mikhail" ). 10.3 m.
Nudibranch, Ardeadoris rubroannulata. 5.5 m.