Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Wednesday 10 February 2016

Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Time

9:04am - 10:40am

Details

It was calm at The Leap and we were able to get in from the low platform. We descended and swam at around 30° to the sand line arriving near the rock where I last saw "Bob" and "Lucy", the pot-bellied seahorses. Visibility was at least 10 metres and there was almost no surge.

We headed towards The Steps. We encountered the first weedy seadragon (PT2015081601) just before Seahorse Rock and didn't see another until Seadragon Alley.

In Seadragon Alley we saw 6 weedy seadragons. The first one was a new one (PT2016021001) I'd not seen before. We also saw the female with the cut first appendage (PT2013122201), another female (PT2015011102), another relatively new one (PT2015122201), a newish male (PT2016012602) towards the end of his eggs, and one of the juveniles from the middle of last year (PT2015051001).

At the end of Seadragon Alley I had a good look for the ornate ghostpipefish we'd seen last week but there was no sign of it. We continued along the sand line, past Big Rock, past the basket star to Diversity Rock. At Diversity Rock we found "Daniel" in the sea tulips, and "Arnold" and "Rosie" in the sponges on the rock behind Diversity Rock. We could not see "Noel" at all. Both pygmy pipehorses were in the Carijoa, the male (IL2016011002) and the female (IL2015123101).

Mike was running low on air so headed for the exit. I still had plenty and decided to head back to the rock where I used to see pygmy pipehorses on The Leap side of the basket star. I was pleasantly surprised to find a male pygmy (IL2016021001) there. I was even more excited when I saw that the female (IL2015072601) was still there. I first saw her in July last year and last saw her on 2 January. I couldn't find her on the next couple of dives I'd done and no longer checked that rock.

I then headed back past the basket star and Diversity Rock on to the other seahorses. I spotted two Miamira magnifica nudibranchs together between Diversity Rock and the other seahorses. "Di" and "Mikhail" were on their usual rock.

I then headed to the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

96 minutes

Maximum depth

21.9 m

Average depth

14.2 m

Water temperature

22.1°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

4:01am

0.30m

High

10:27am

1.92m

Low

4:55pm

0.16m

High

10:59pm

1.59m

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.